Hi nancaz2325
I’m guessing you’ve missed all the information about mealworms not being good for hogs. They love them but it has been realised that they have an imbalance of phosphorous and calcium which leads to calcium being leached from the bones – causing what they call metabolic bone disease (similar to osteoporosis). In addition, they don’t have a very high nutritional value.
Hedgehogs and in particular hoglets can become addicted to mealworms and not want to eat anything else – which means they will eat mealworms in preference to the more nutritious food that they need. This is a big problem if they turn up at rehabilitators with bone problems and then not want to eat anything but the mealworms which probably caused the problems.
For all these reasons they should only ever be given as a very occasional treat and preferably not at all. It’s particularly important at this time of year that the hogs get really good nutritious food so that they can put on the two particular types of fat which they need for hibernation. So please feed either hedgehog food or cat/dog food. (peanuts and sunflower hearts also don’t have a very good balance of phosphorous and calcium and although they aren’t quite as bad as mealworms, are best avoided – except in a properly balanced mix).
For further information please see:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/i-feed-hedgehogs-mealworms/
Please don’t feel bad about feeding mealworms before – we can’t know something until we find out – and what you offer the hogs in the future is more important than what you offered them in the past.
