How to feed a hedgehog at home

Who did not happen to drag home a hedgehog? Surely in childhood every child will certainly do it. And today even there are breeders who breed unusual pets. Of course, the newly born owners have a question: what to feed the hedgehogs at home? And let's understand.

Are the cartoons lying?

Who is not familiar with the fallacy that hedgehogs adore mushrooms and apples? Say, they drag them on the thorns in their mink, stocks for the winter do. Bullshit. Stocks they need in the winter only in the form of its own fat. And apples are just for getting rid of parasites. Sour juice of rotten fruit perfectly cleans needles from uninvited guests. But, now it's not about that.

The whole of the hedgehogs' mile is greatly exaggerated. These are cruel and voracious predators. In nature, they feed on mice, snakes, snails, chicks, frogs, insects. As you can see, the menu is very diverse.Sometimes hedgehogs can eat fruit bald, but this is more out of despair. Mushrooms, milk, bread, sausage, cheese animals in nature do not eat. You should not give them at home. Moreover, a hedgehog can die from milk. And they certainly shouldn't give them human dishes.

It is interesting. In order for the hedgehog to live at home for 10 years or more, you will have to make a separate menu for it. It should be diverse, nutritious and modest in size. On the day of an adult animal requires no more than 250 g of the entire feed.

How to determine whether you feed your hedgehog? By weight. An adult hedgehog should weigh in October at least 800 g. In spring and summer, a little less. And in the winter they do not weigh, because the hedgehog is sleeping at this time.

The kitchen is not for the faint of heart.

It is worth noting that the menu for hedgehogs at home is a very bloodthirsty thing and not for squeamish people. His diet should consist of such products (the list is compiled in descending order):

Raw meat
These are chicken, veal, horse meat, lamb. Pork giving is strictly prohibited! Everything else can be given in the form of small pieces or grind into minced meat.The same category includes mice (adults and children), frogs, snails, slugs. Some owners are afraid of infecting their pet with worms, so be sure to boil the meat. Interestingly, mice and frogs they boil too? Still, it is preferable to give the hedgehog raw foods, but to purchase them in proven places.

Secret. Many sources categorically prohibit feeding hedgehogs with meat and meat. Strange, but in nature these sweethearts are still those scavengers. Dead chicks or small animals gobble up both cheeks.

Insects
Larvae, pupae, worms, adult insects. Just in huge quantities! You will have to catch Khrushchev, locusts, grasshoppers, moths, gold-eyed beetles, beetles, etc., and so on. Then all this good you have to somehow kill.

Council Domestic cockroaches hedgehogs can not be given!

Experienced hedgehog breeders advise cramming insects into a glass jar, close the screw cap and ... bake in the oven. After this, it is necessary to thoroughly dry the insects' cold corpses. Store them in the same glass jar with a tight lid.

Important! Why all these tricks? So that during the meal the insects do not just run away.Plus in the fall where will you get such treat for a hedgehog? What if he is not going to hibernate? This is where such reserves come in handy.

Did you know that one adult hedgehog eats up to 70 may beetles a day? And besides this feeds.

Vegetables
Basically it is the usual raw carrots. That her hedgehogs prefer other vegetables. According to the experience of the owners, prickly pets eat carrots better if they are rubbed. Large pieces of sly people are usually ignored. Vegetables can be replaced with a small amount of apple or pear. They, too, it is desirable to grind. By the way, what's stopping you from experimenting? Try giving your pet pieces of other vegetables or fruits. Suddenly he will be a great sweet tooth and will be happy to eat such a treat?

These three groups - the main component of the entire diet of hedgehogs at home. But the uniformity of nutrition can affect the lack of vitamins and minerals. Accordingly, it will adversely affect the health of the prickly grumbler.

What can I give a hedgehog more

1. Kashi. Cooked from a variety of cereals, strictly only on the water, without adding salt and sugar.It can be rice, wheat, pearl-barley, millet, buckwheat. Legumes are not recommended. First, hedgehogs do not like them, but they can eat from hunger. Secondly, it is not yet known how the gastrointestinal tract will react to such treats.
2. Cottage cheese. It is given very rarely and quite a bit, literally half a teaspoon.
3. Liver and other offal. Unlike meat, this component of the diet is recommended to give the hedgehog only in boiled form. The lung, the spleen, the heart, the stomach - all this is perfectly devoured by any hedgehog. They are generally greedy for viscera.
4. Fluids. Natural juices without sugar, meat and fish broths without salt and spices, ordinary drinking water. Hedgehogs in nature drink, but not enough. They have enough liquid from amphibians and small animals. But at home content, water, even if in the form of broth, should always be nearby.
5. Eggs Quail or chicken, boiled, raw. They are also given in such a volume that the daily portion is not more than 30 g. Usually 2 quail eggs per week are enough.
6. A fish. In natural conditions, hedgehogs do not fish. But, if a hedgehog to offer a small piece of fish, he is unlikely to refuse.Just do not let the river! It causes a shortage of many vitamins in the body of the animal, retards normal growth and development. In babies under one year old, the skeleton is formed incorrectly, and then they often suffer from rickets. Give your pet a slice of sea fish (mackerel, whale, saury, pollock). Such a treat, on the contrary, will only benefit.
7. Potatoes. Give only boiled. The best would be to make small balls of grated crackers and mint potatoes, and then offer your home hedgehog. For health, you can add to the mass a little fish or bone meal. And for taste add porridge, minced meat. This type of feeding is very convenient than the food piled on a small plate. And the animal will not be capricious, choosing tasty pieces. He will have to eat the whole ball.

Council Do not feed a hedgehog at home with boiled macaroni, soups, sweets from your table. Prickly grumbler is not aware of the benefits or harm to his body. He ate it all safely. But the result can be completely unpredictable, from indisposition to death. Do not try to treat the animal with salted, smoked or fried fish.Kebabs, sausages, cookies, chips - also a taboo for a hedgehog.

And further. If you have a hedgehog in the house, and you do not want to catch amphibians and insects (insert your reason here), then go to the pet store. There you can buy mice, insects, larvae and worms. Which is also accurate without pathogenic microorganisms or disease causing bacteria.

How to feed a hedgehog at home? The most suitable food close to eating in a natural environment. Then your pet will live with you for many years, well-fed and healthy.

Video: how and what to feed