What do I feed my hedgehog?

What should I feed a hedgehog>?

• I want to get a hedgehog but I want to feed it the best foods I can, what would that be because Ive heard alot of crazy things and stuff

• Answer:

  Here at the rescue our main hedgehog diet consists of several varieties of Royal Canin dry cat food. Our veterinarians recommend it and the hedgehogs like it. We use Babycat 34 for small and growing hedgehogs, a combination of Kitten 36 and Selective 34/29 as a standard diet, and Indoor 40 for portly hedgehogs that need to lose weight. This has worked well for us now for over 6 years. Mealworms can be given as an occasional treat. Because there was a lot of inbreeding done by profiteers in the mid-1990s, a registry was established in 1997 to assist quality and ethical breeders to only breed hedgehogs from known and clear blood lines, to avoid hereditary fatal illnesses. Today, we would recommend only obtaining a hedgehog from a breeder member of the Hedgehog Breeders Alliance (HBA), who must comply with a very exacting Code of Ethics (read it on their web site). HBA breeder member hedgehogs generally sell for between $150 and $250, but the price is well worth it when you consider their guarantees, aftercare, and the fact that they only breed registered hedgehogs from known and clear blood lines. Also there is an excellent hedgehog pet care book recently published titled "Hedgehogs: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual" by veterinarian Sharon Vanderlip (Barron's, 2010) for about $9 on major Internet bookstores. Also have a look on our rescues web site on our care page (the "Little Flash" page). Best wishes, Z. G. Standing Bear at The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue in Divide, Colorado USA