How much food?

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autumn5930

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 21, 2013
Messages
54
Location
Wenonah, NJ
I was wondering how much kibble to feed my hedgehog soon. I am getting one in the fall. should I just fill the bowl with food till the brim, or like count out 20 or something? :facepalm:
 
It's a bit of trial-and-error since each hedgie is different. I use a small kitchen scale to weigh out how much food the hedgies are getting each night.

For Bella (an 376g adult), I measure out 10g.
Satin (a 680g adult), I measured out 9g.
Tex (360-380g adult), 12g.
Marlee (252-342g baby), 20g.

They each eat most of what I put out and leave a few grams in their dishes by morning. If, ever, they ate the whole thing, then I put a few more grams in their dishes when I spot them empty in the morning and then make sure to add a couple extra grams the next night.

In short, try maybe 20g worth when hedgie comes home, if your hedgie eats all of it, put more in the dish in the morning and increase the 20 to maybe 22 or 25g at night. If hedgie doesn't eat all of it, I'd still put around 20g out a few more nights in a row -- they can be anxious/upset/scared at first and take some time to settle in and don't always eat their normal amount the first few nights. Then take it from there... if there's always a lot left, then decrease the g's; if it's all gone, increase the g's.

You'll want to be able to put out fresh kibbles each night, so I wouldn't advise filling up a big bowl and just letting it sit a few days until hedgie's eaten all the way through.
 
I started off measuring in teaspoons with my first hedgie, but found that I couldn't be terribly accurate. I'm not sure how much of the problem was due to me being a failure using that method vs the method itself not being as good.

I know other people who swear by counting kibble. And that's cool. Personally, I'd rather spend time snuggling with my hedgies than counting their kibble. The other thing that trips me up with the kibble counting is that not all kibbles are the same size, so if you change from one size to another, you have to reconfigure the count. Probably not a biggie as you wouldn't be changing things up all the time.

So I go with grams -- I figure I already have the kitchen scale to keep track of the hedgies' weights, may as well use it to measure out their food :)
 
We just fill bowls. Half or all the way depending how much they eat. When the bowl gets too dirty or there are too many little pieces in there we dump it to the dogs, clean the bowl, and start again.
 
Thanks for all the replies!

smhufflepuff; It's a bit of trial-and-error since each hedgie is different. I use a small kitchen scale to weigh out how much food the hedgies are getting each night.

What kitchen scale do you use?
 
I have this one: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=15947047&RN=1151&

It's nothing fancy, but does exactly what I want:
- it can weigh in 1 gram increments,
- I can put a dish on it, then set it to zero, and weigh out exactly what's needed,
- it has an auto-shut off
- if hedgie is wiggly or apt to wander off, I can put a bowl with a mealie on it, set it to zero, then put hedgie in the bowl to get hedgie's weight
- easy to clean
 
I'm just guessing, but possibly the reason that volume measures are inaccurate is because the shape and density of different kibbles will affect the result. But if you weigh the particular kibble you use a few times, THEN measure the volume, you should get a good idea of the scoop size you need and not have to weigh every night. Make sense? I'm going to give it a try when I get my hedgie home!
 
True. After measuring our ~9 and 10g for awhile (Marlee is now at 9g and Bella at 10g of kibble), I can get pretty close to accurate just by eyeing how much is in my spoon. But I still use the scale anyhow.
 
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