How to feed a hedgehog at home? We feed and drink a thorny pet.

Not everyone can boast of keeping such a pet as a hedgehog in their home. It can be taken home from the grove or purchased at a nursery where the animal's health has been tested and not questioned. When a person brings a cute prickly creature to his house, he must provide a cozy corner for the animal from the materials familiar to him and study in advance how to feed a hedgehog at home and how to properly care for him.

The hedgehog prefers to make himself a home of turf and grass in thickets of bushes, in secluded places, hidden from prying eyes. In the house, a dark corner with a hut collected from newspapers, leaves and grass is suitable for him. Having started a house for a forest dweller, you need to provide him with comfortable living, decent care and good nutrition. Then the animal will bring you joy, and his stay next to you will not be too difficult for him.

Hedgehog menu in the forest canteen

In nature, the hedgehog is carnivorous and prefers to eat all kinds of insects indiscriminately, not disdaining snails, caterpillars, earthworms and small crickets. Their richest diet also includes frogs and other amphibians. The predatory animal in large quantities eats small rodents, among which are mice, small chicks or eggs from bird's nests, ruined by itself, will become a real delicacy for it.

Hedgehogs are resistant to poison, so snakes are also included in their menu, regardless of whether they are poisonous or not. Having eaten a poisonous animal or plant, as well as having received a bite from a poisonous creature, the thorny animal will live on and continue to go about its business. It will not be difficult for a hedgehog to ruin a wasp nest, completely destroying these insects, and remain safe and sound. Scientists have been studying this natural phenomenon for many decades, but an explanation has not yet been found.

Like many forest orderlies, hedgehogs cleanse forests and groves from carrion, eating the corpses of small animals. It is impossible to exclude vegetable food from their menu, although it is relegated to the background.

How to feed a hedgehog at home?

The omnivorous nature of cute thorns allows them to eat almost on a par with humans, but their food should be lightly salted or not salted at all. Hedgehogs do not refuse different types of cheese products, boiled pasta, biscuits, raw, boiled and fried potatoes and even seeds. He will gladly accept cat food, fresh fish, eggs, greens from your hands. You can cook various cereals, meat broths for a new pet, give him milk and even offer cottage cheese.

However, a civilized diet should not completely replace the usual forest food. Sometimes, and maybe often, you can pamper the animal with bugs and spiders, moths caught specially for it. To delight your pet with his favorite dishes in winter, you can catch insects in the summer, dry and store in a jar with a tightly closed lid.

Raw meat remains the main treat for a hedgehog even at home. You can buy or catch mice, but it is better to leave the pleasure of butchering a carcass to a forest dweller. Raw meat can be alternated with boiled meat to avoid rodent contamination of the hedgehog with pathogenic bacteria. However, it doesn't need to be digested too much. It is useful to feed your new friend with food supplements - bone meal, but not more often than once a day.

Do hedgehogs eat apples?

A hedgehog carrying a ruddy red-sided apple on its needles along forest paths is an image that we remember from cartoons and from the pages of children's books. However, apples are not the main components of the diet of a forest orderly: he will not be able to hold out as a vegetarian for a long time.

Various fruits and juices from them will serve only as a fortified addition to the main diet.

Hunting is what is inherent in the nature of these animals, and they are gatherers of fruits and berries insofar as they are. They can carry berries and mushrooms impaled on needles in order to stock up on food for the winter. However, it is extremely difficult and almost impossible to prick something on needles for a small forest dweller. And on top of that, it is not unknown that hedgehogs sleep in winter and do not need too much supplies. Although they can drag apples into their home out of foresight: it suddenly happens to wake up in the middle of winter and feel hungry.

How to give a hedgehog to drink?

Liquid is necessary for cute thorny creatures as well as people. She is an invariable part of the diet. The animal's dining room should always contain a bowl of ordinary drinking water. Before you invite him to drink, the bowl must be thoroughly washed and rinsed with boiling water - this way you will provide the animal with proper care and protect it from unwanted diseases.

It is believed that the hedgehog's favorite drink is milk. Yes, he will not refuse such an offer, but do not forget: you should not offer milk too often. This threatens the animal with some sores and even serious ailments. Cow's milk should be excluded from his diet: it is too fat for a small creature and can provoke intestinal disorders and have a destructive effect on teeth. Better to choose goat or sheep milk.

How to feed a thorny pet?

The standard diet for a hedgehog is twice a day. However, if this is not enough for your pet, he will behave restlessly while searching for food. This will serve as a signal to you that it is worthwhile to feed the baby a little more. The nutritional norm for an adult animal for the spring and autumn period is approximately 220-230 grams.

In the summer, 200 grams of food will be enough for a hedgehog. Females in an "interesting position" are able to eat twice as much as usual.

The main part of the menu should remain in the evening and at night: do not forget, because your four-legged friend is set by nature for nightlife. If food is not prudently left behind, he will rummage, dig, and make noise all night long.

Nowadays, a hedgehog living in a house with a person is no longer a wonder. Therefore, your favorite animal can freely become your constant household member. And its simplicity and unpretentiousness relieves the owner of the big trouble associated with the questions of how to feed the hedgehog at home and how to properly care for him.

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