Meal Worms

During Squee's vet appointment, Dr.Hefflefinger incouraged me too feed him some meal worms, so i went out and got a big thing of them.
Squee will NOT go near them, i've tried leaving them in his play area and hand feeding but he wil not go near them. I don't want to put them in his food dish for later cause i don't want them crawling all through his home.. he just doesn't want anything to do with them.
Their all dead now...
Does anyone have suggestions for protein other than mealies? He's on high protein dry cat food, which he loves, but again the vet said not enough. Is there anything else that would make a good substitute that Squee might not turn his nose up in disgust at?

I'd try again with the mealies.

You could set one out for him during play time and hope he runs over it, sniffs, and eats. He may not get it the first, or second, or third time... but he'll likely eventually figure it out.

You could squish one end of a mealie so it's, um, juicy and try rubbing that on his lips when he's in a happy mood.

smhufflepuff said:

.. try rubbing that on his lips when he's in a happy mood.

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Lol I wish Squee was ever in happy mood, if i tried to rub anything near his face he'd be a quill ball before i could get close, and if i did..CHOMP!

But I will just keep trying with the mealies... they just keep dying though. They lived about a week, and i put them out everyday...He does like his veggies though

You can keep the mealies in the fridge (in a container with air holes of course) and give them 24 hours outside of the fridge with a carrot on occasion. They should be able to survive for a longer period of time. Hedgies should have other food to supplement their diet. If you look at the the food FAQs you may get some ideas of safe options in addition to mealies. Try things gradually and repetitively - hedgies can be pretty stubborn until they discover something they like.

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287

Ooh! That's exactly what i do. I have a high protein chicken meal cat food. Which is full always in his bowl (he loves that stuff), then at night i'll put in a tiny bowl of veggies or fruit. On all the forms I have seen anything against peppers yet (like not the spicy ones). I gave Squee some carrots, and green pepper the other night (he gobbled those up), and he likes oranges, and LOVES apples. So he gets alot of "healthy" choice extras... i'm just worried he's not getting enough protein, or at least the right kind.
I've tried cooked veggies, and cooked chicken (with no seasoning), but he won't go near anything cooked, so were sticking with fresh uncooked for the time being.

I think Squee is a little set in his ways. He's around 2 years old, i just got him about 4 months ago now. He's not use to anything especially handling, i just think everything is new and he's not so eager to change.

Keep trying with the bugs and other foods. Sometimes it just takes them a long time to decide to try something. Cooper wouldn't eat a mealworm at first either. 4 months of my trying daily, and he finally ate one. Now he gets extremely excited when its mealworm time. I tried handing them to him, putting them in bowls, and just letting them run around in his play area with him. It was during a playtime that he ran across one, sniffed it and finally ate it.

Alrighty, i'll just keep at it then!

may i suggest freeze dried mealies?

you can leave them in the cage without worrying of them crawling and growing (ew) and your hedgie will eventually find them and maybe eat them.

my girls love them.

freeze dried crickets, as well.

I like that idea, meal worms are really gross.. i refuse to pick them up after one clung to me eww. haha, i will definatly try freeze dried.

There are meal worms I feed my geckos that are dead, but not freeze dried. It's called Can O' Worms. You can find it in the reptile section.

Not sure if that helps, but you can give them a try. They are still juicy. Bleh

There from the Zoo Med's Can O' Snails are good to my hedgie loves them its like 19% protein and less than .5% fat

You really wanna be careful with freeze dried worms...this article is an example why http://www.hoodpetz.com/freezedriedmealworms.html

Eclypse said:

You really wanna be careful with freeze dried worms...this article is an example why http://www.hoodpetz.com/freezedriedmealworms.html

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Good point. I wonder, for the squeamish humans, if taking regular live mealies and putting them in the freezer, then serving to hedgie might be a way to go?

I keep mine in the fridge, and if you take them out quickly they arent to squirmy at all, after about 2 minutes they are pretty wiggly though..when i pick them up i roll them between my fingers to get any debri off and so they don't stick to my fingers...

Omg that's soo sad! I'm so glad you posted that article! I would have had no idea, and well just like the lady in the article said - you'd assume nothings wrong with this. Just another form of mealies. Poor poor little hedgie.

That's a really good idea about the fridge.. i thought about doing that but then i though it would kill them all. lol

Brittney said:

There are meal worms I feed my geckos that are dead, but not freeze dried. It's called Can O' Worms. You can find it in the reptile section.

Not sure if that helps, but you can give them a try. They are still juicy. Bleh

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Wow, your geckos will eat ones that arent moving? Mine wouldnt touch them!

Most pet stores keep mealworms and waxworms in the fridge, they live alot longer that way

Yep I keep my mealies in the fridge and they do last quite a while. Try hard boiled egg, it seems to be a favourite with young hedgies.