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Home Forums Carers / rescuing a hedgehog Newly rescued baby Reply To: Newly rescued baby

#27105
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Nic

Hi MnS

Welcome to the Forum.

Did the person who told you the hog was well but underweight not advise you what to feed?

As alanfrew says mealworms are definitely not good, especially for hoglets. They have an imbalance of calcium and phosphorous causing calcium to be leached from the bones which can lead to deformity in hoglets and weak bones in adults. Peanuts also not brilliant as they have a slight imbalance so not good feed in isolation or with another foodstuff which also has a bad ratio. Weetabix does not sound good to me. You would probably be better off feeding the hoglet cat/kitten food, kitten biscuits or dog/puppy food. But ideally you would be able to take the advice of an expert on feeding hoglets in care if they have advised you to care for the hoglet yourself.

Don’t forget to provide water and be aware that hogs are very good at spilling it, so you may need to check from time to time that there’s still some left in any bowl!

I believe hogs in care can overeat, but once the hoglet has reached a sufficient size, and if it is otherwise well, it should be released back into the wild where it was found. There is still plenty of time for it to put on sufficient weight before hibernation.

If you cannot get advice from the person who has already advised you, I would try to get advice from another carer. You can find details of your nearest ones from the BHPS on 01584 890801

Meanwhile this is some advice about feeding from Vale Wildlife.
http://www.valewildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Feeding-wild-hedgehogs.pdf

Good luck. I hope the little hog does well – but please change it’s diet sooner rather than later.

Hedgehog