Today more and more people choose a hedgehog as their pet. In recent years, it has become possible to purchase specially bred hedgehogs of various breeds. In this case, you can find out in detail from the breeder how to feed the African hedgehog at home. But many people pick up cute animals while walking in nature. They have a question about how to feed a forest hedgehog at home. This article will go into detail about this.

What do hedgehogs eat in nature

To understand what to feed a little hedgehog that has come to your home, you need to know well what hedgehogs eat in the wild. Thanks to children's fairy tales and cartoons, many mistakenly believe that hedgehogs feed mainly on mushrooms, apples and milk.

The hedgehog is an omnivorous animal, but its main food is various insects: beetles and their larvae, snails, slugs, caterpillars, earthworms. In addition, reptiles and amphibians, baby mice and rats become food. Hedgehogs destroy birds' nests on the ground. The diet is complemented by various berries and fruits.

How to feed a little hedgehog at home? Fortunately, hedgehogs are not picky about food, the main thing is to choose the most suitable and healthy diet.

How to feed a hedgehog at home

You can use premium or super premium cat dry food as the main food for hedgehogs. Carefully study the composition - meat and vegetables must be in the first positions, but starchy foods (such as potatoes and corn, for example) should not be at all. There is no food completely suitable for hedgehogs and capable of satisfying all their needs, therefore dry food must be supplemented with meat, insects, and vegetables.

So, answering the question "how to feed a hedgehog at home", we can say that you need to use either dry food with additives, or natural food. Let's consider the products necessary for hedgehogs in more detail.

What kind of meat to give a hedgehog

Meat is what you can feed your hedgehog with at home in the first place. It is better to use lean meat - chicken, turkey, duck, veal, rabbit. The question remains: in what form should the meat be given - boiled or raw. The fact is that hedgehogs eat raw meat much more readily than boiled ones, this is especially true for recently caught hedgehogs.

Various by-products can also be used as feed: liver, lungs, heart, stomach, tongue. Boiled liver is a favorite treat for hedgehogs.

The meat is boiled or steamed without salt and spices. You do not need to cook the meat for a long time in order to disinfect it - a few minutes will be enough for small pieces.

Should I give a hedgehog a fish

Is it necessary to give the hedgehog a fish, because he does not eat it in nature? The hedgehog will gladly eat some fish. For feeding, you can use weed fish or waste, tripe. You can not feed the hedgehogs salted and slightly salted, as well as stale, rotten fish. This can cause poisoning.

Fish can be used as a treat and a useful addition to the main diet, but not as a main food. Eating a lot of hake, pollock, haddock can cause anemia. Eating a lot of pike, bream, whitefish, carp, tench, crucian carp, perch can lead to vitamin deficiency.

It is best to use mackerel and horse mackerel as feed. The meat of these fish in terms of properties and effect on the hedgehog's body is comparable in effect to the meat of farm animals. The fish is also boiled or steamed without salt and spices.

Concentrated animal feed

How to feed a little hedgehog? As an additional feed, you can use special concentrated animal feed. It can be bone and blood meal, meat and bone meal, fish meal. These feeds are produced in factories using heat treatment.

Insects

It is insects that are the main food for hedgehogs in nature, so animals should definitely receive this type of food. In large cities, insects can be purchased at pet stores. These can be cockroaches, grasshoppers, crickets, zofobas and other food insects. Meal worms are also a treat for hedgehogs.

How to breed insects

How to feed a little hedgehog at home? If you plan to leave the hedgehog for a long time, you can take care of the constant presence of insects. At home, you can breed the larvae of a large flour beetle.

To do this, take a small tightly knit chest made of wood (it is better to glue a wooden box from the inside with foil) or a plastic container. A small hole is made in the upper part for air access, tightly tightened with a fine mesh.

Bran is poured into the box in several layers, separated by natural fabric or gauze. Now the larvae of the flour crust are placed in the container. These can be purchased from a pet store or market. Place the box in a warm place. Mealworms turn into pupae, and later into bugs. The bugs lay eggs again, from which worms emerge. Some of the worms are left for further reproduction. The bran is periodically poured. Other insects can be bred in the same way.

How to catch and store insects

Not everyone wants to have a box full of insects in their home. In summer, they can be caught and collected in nature. Almost any insects are suitable: flies, beetles (especially the hedgehogs of the May beetles), grasshoppers and locusts, as well as the larvae of any insects and worms. Flying insects can be collected in a light trap. May beetles are collected from trees.

Trapped insects can be stored. First, a closed jar is immersed in a pot of hot water. When all insects are dead, they are dried in the sun. The feed can now be shredded and stored in a glass jar with a tight lid.

Prepared insect feed

Previously, fans of hedgehogs had to harvest insects for the winter, dry and grind them, and then store them in jars. Of course, this can be done even today, but there is an easier way.

Many pet stores sell food for insectivorous birds, reptiles, hedgehogs, and sugar possums. Be careful - there are cereal foods for insectivorous birds that mimic insects with flavorings. Look at the composition and choose food that contains insects. There is a particularly rich selection in online stores: mixtures of dried insects of several species, wet food from insects in cans and even canned insects. Dry food can be mixed with chicken or quail eggs, you can add minced meat to this mixture. Wet and canned foods are ready to eat.

Vegetables fruits

In nature, hedgehogs do not refuse plant food. In order for your thorny pet to receive all the necessary vitamins and minerals, it must be offered plant-based foods. How to feed a hedgehog at home? What plant foods can you offer him?

First of all, the hedgehog will appreciate the sweet fruit. You can treat him with an apple, pear, apricot, peach, watermelon, kiwi, banana, melon, papaya. The pet will not refuse from the usual forest berries: cranberries, blueberries, blueberries, raspberries. Eats garden strawberries, wild strawberries, cherries (pitted).

The animal will also like vegetables: carrots, cucumber, zucchini, spinach, asparagus, green beans, peas.

Fresh vegetables can be substituted for baby purees in jars. The composition should not contain starch, sugar.

Is it possible for hedgehogs to milk and eggs

When people think about what to feed wild hedgehogs at home, apples and milk come to mind for most. Indeed, in the old recommendations one can find advice to feed a hedgehog with cottage cheese, cereals in milk, and offer cow's milk as a drink. But modern zoologists are unanimous - you cannot give milk to adult hedgehogs, they do not tolerate it well.

But hedgehogs eat eggs in nature, if the animal stumbles upon a bird's nest on the ground, it will definitely eat it. Eggs can be offered both chicken and quail, raw and boiled.

Food from the table

There are people who believe that since a hedgehog is an omnivorous animal, then any food is suitable for him. And they do not have the question "how to feed the hedgehog at home." Indeed, a hedgehog can eat dairy products, and salted meat with spices, various cereals, soups, bread, and more. But it's not right! Do not allow family members to feed the animal from the common table. Salty, spiced, fried and fatty foods are extremely dangerous for the body of a wild animal. Food for a hedgehog is given raw or prepared separately.

How to feed little hedgehogs at home

It is very difficult to feed the little hedgehogs on your own. If you find a hedgehog's nest in the forest, you should not take the cubs from it, without a mother, they will most likely die. But if the nest is ruined, and the hedgehog has died, you can try to save the cubs. So, how to feed little hedgehogs at home?

To feed the cubs, you need to purchase a formula for feeding newborn kittens or puppies. The temperature in the nest should be maintained at 35 "C. Before and after each feed, massage is required to stimulate bowel movements.

Blind hedgehogs (up to two weeks old) are fed every 2-3 hours, 2-3 ml of the mixture. If the eyes have recently opened (age from two to four weeks), the break will be 3-4 hours, and the amount of the mixture will increase to 5-6 ml. A month old hedgehog already has teeth. From this point on, they can start offering solid food, such as kitten food or a boiled egg.

What can not be fed to hedgehogs

Finally, I would like to indicate separately what you can not feed the hedgehogs.

1. Milk and dairy products.
2. Dried fruits, raisins.
3. Pineapple, grapes, avocado, citrus and other exotic fruits.
4. Tea tree oil (even vapors can cause poisoning).
5. Seeds, nuts.
6. Garlic, onions.
7. Food from the table (cookies, chips, sausages, etc.).