Hi JillyJ
I suspect you could get as many answers to your question as there are brands of cat food! Reportedly different hogs in different areas won’t touch certain foods that others quite happily eat! Although I suspect that may just be what they’ve got used to.
I normally feed hog food, but last winter had to change. I had a non-hibernating hoglet and a rat. So I tried Iams kitten biscuits which were taken to well (by the hoglet, not the rat, luckily). Not the cheapest, maybe, but high protein and low fat. The hog did of course have no alternative. I think that is the thing, when there is an alternative they’ll often eat what they’re used to. The hoglet continued to grow throughout the winter.
I read some information a while back from:
http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/hedgehogs.html#population
(Lots of really useful information there, by the way)
which said:
“Hedgehogs have a propensity for eating almost anything and will readily consume high fat foods (e.g. cat food, processed meats, etc.) put out in gardens and if offered in captivity. Hedgehog metabolism is geared to the digestion of high protein invertebrate prey and unrestricted access to high-fat foods can result in fatty liver disease, obesity and coronary complications as is seen among humans”
Hence my preference for higher protein lower fat varieties.
