Food Preference
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It seems to me that not all hogs like the same food. I have tried most of the specialist feed on offer and have found Spikes Semi Moist is the favourite. I try mixing in different types of hard biscuit but they tend to leave that til last. Then we have the hogs that only like the cheap dog or cat food. So I put a bowl of each out. Its lovely to see them all enjoying the food and sometimes we have 3 hogs sharing at the same time. Of course they love mealworm but I restrict them as a treat. I think the word has gone around that we have the best hedgehog restaurant in the area. : )
I’ve only ever used ark wildlife hedgehog food, it’s like crunchy biscuits . Your visitors are certainly getting well looked after .
I don’t feed them meal worms at all, as they aren’t good for them.Hope you enjoy seeing them in the garden, they are fun to watch.
Hi arceye, mine love the spike semi moist, it’s first to go. 1 dish of that and 1 dish of cat biscuits. It depends if they feel like eating the biscuits, there’s always some there if they want them, but the spike goes every time. No mealworm, please. We’ve all don’t it, but they are no good for them. I only put some out twice I think, so it was cold turkey! Stopped straight away and they are so addictive they went on hunger strike right there and then. Trial and error has shown us they are fussy eaters. The hunger strikes last approx 3 days before they try something else. We shouldn’t worry about it as we are only supplementing their natural food and they will be eating what ever they can find out and about. Best wishes.
I have only ever given our visitors Hedgehog nibbles (Food4wildbirds) and recently changed from mealworms to Calciworms (not branded version). I put out on average seven 4″ dishes split four and three in two feeding stations. Both stations are covered by plastic Under-bed storage containers with min 2 entrances. Most mornings all the food has gone and at most I might have about half a dish left over.
I did find an old post going back to July 17 by wlliam and nic discussing Calci worms. In regard to them being expensive they are currently about the same as mealworms. As always it depends on how you buy it i.e. I always buy bulk whether it is Sunflower kernels for the birds or Hedgehog nibbles/Calci worms as it is so cost effective. I bought 10kg of Calci worms for £54 which I think is pretty good. Also, my current understanding is that the Calcium/Phosphorous ratio is well within the accepted guidelines, but as always, the information available does vary. Certainly, the switch from mealworms to Calci worms has gone without any ‘complaints’ from the customers.Hi, I will probably make people angry here, but I don’t believe mealworm are good for hogs, even calci ones. They are extremely expensive, even without the calcium coating. My opinion is, you can buy very good nutritious hedgehog food and cat biscuits for far less expense. I have also changed one of my bird feeders as too many sunflower hearts were being dropped and the hogs were eating them, which is also bad for them. I’m not too sure why firms have started adding calcium to the mealworm anyway, was it done with birds in mind? I have used the company you mentioned and always found them a good firm, so I’m not getting at them at all. I just think if it’s an “unknown” I would rather not use them at all myself. Best wishes
Hi Annker
Calci-worms are the larvae of a completely different insect from mealworms and I believe they just naturally have more calcium in them. Mealworms are the larvae of a type of beetle and calci-worms are the larvae of the black soldier fly. It’s considered that calci-worms have a better calcium to phosphorous ratio, although it seems the amounts vary a bit depending on what they have been fed on.
I have only checked this out briefly, at the moment, but a potential concern is that as they become more popular they may be fed on not such good diets themselves. So that on some information I found black soldier fly larvae fed on chicken feed have 29.49 calcium and 5.56 phosphorous which looks a good ratio. But those fed on restaurant waste had 1.41 calcium (substantially less) and 2.37 phosphorous. So not a good ratio. This is however, only one source. I have no way of knowing how reliable it is and I only checked the table of quantities and haven’t read the whole document.
So, whilst they are contained as part of a hedgehog food mix which I use, for me the jury is still out as to whether they should be fed in any other manner. It may be that people are tempted to buy the cheaper versions, which may have been fed on cheaper, food and thus not have so much calcium in them.
Hi, I would imagine any discussion on any pet or wild animal food will have many opinions and differing conclusions, which is no bad thing. I only give our Hogs a sprinkle of Calci worms with their Hedgehog nibbles. I get the worms from https://www.ivelvalleybirdfood.co.uk/wildlife-and-mealworms/dried-calci-worms.html
They seem a responsible company and provide some useful information on their products. However, I don’t know where they source their worms or what Ca:P ratio they have, although I assume by their nature it will much better than mealworms.
According to a paper by hedgehog-rescue.org ” A healthy balance is a Ca:P of 2:1, 1:1 or at most 1:2″ .
I have emailed Ivelvalley asking for this information.Hi alanfrew
Yes, you’re right the ratio from those figures I found for calci-worms are much better than mealworms.
This is some feeding information from Vale Wildlife, which includes a table of some foods (calci-worms not on there). Mealworm ratio average is calcium/phosphorous 1/20 with some as much as 1/33.
http://www.valewildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Feeding-wild-hedgehogs.pdf
The ratios of some other foods are interesting, too. i.e. raw chicken and beef, which are not good.Well done asking your food supplier for details. I don’t think it does any harm to check up on them from time to time. But maybe you need to find out where they source their calci-worms and what they’re fed on. I imagine it’s a great temptation to feed them on something like restaurant waste for financial reasons. But it’s possible there is something even worse to feed them, which might produce and even lower amount of calcium. I believe something like happened with mealworms, which may be cause of the difference in the ratio figures. But I think if they know their customers expect them to maintain a good ratio, it might encourage them to stick to decent food for them.
Although calci-worms are probably being investigated for potential human food where there may be other priorities – i.e. maybe protein content – rather than calcium/phosphorous amounts. I don’t know.
Hi Nic, thank you for the info on calci worms. I though they were mealworm with added calcium. It’s all too much for me to be working out and checking every thing! You could go and buy some calc phos and sprinkle it on food yourself, but, then you don’t know how much to use! By the time you’ve worked all this out, wondered if you are doing the right thing, pondered on this and that, it ends with confusion and a massive headache! So I’ll stick to the Hedgehog food I buy and cat biscuits…….. Till.. Someone tells me there’s something wrong with that! As a matter of interest, are these calci worms as addictive as mealworm? I know mealworms are expensive as I buy them for the birds. Best wishes.
Annker I just stick to wet dog food, spikes semi-moist and go cat biscuits – nothing else – cos it just makes my life much more simpler , and I don’t have to worry if I’m damaging them in some way – so I’m with you on that. The hogs don’t feel like their losing out, when they’ve never had it in the first place.
Hi Hedgie Lover, I agree, mine love Spike semi moist and they were attacking the “I♥️my cat” biscuits like mad when I first got them. Plus Purina cat biscuits. The hogs filling up for hibernation have just eaten the Spike. I can’t see the point of paying lots of money on worms of any kind. The hogs are finding and eating their natural food and we are supplementing it to help them along the way. I would hate to give them something that could be harming them in the long run. There maybe some manufacturers who see people are buying more wildlife food these days and making some to put on the market which we have no idea if it is suitable. Figures like ratios of this and that confuse me, so I’d rather stick to what I know. From what Nic says, there’s already some calcie worms fed on different types of food that don’t reach the same ratios. It would be easier if someone put a simple table up with Good Foods on one side and Bad Foods on the other. Maybe these calcie worms could go at the bottom with the words “the jury is out on these till a later date” Best wishes.
I’m not sure about the addiction thing. Time will tell, I suppose, but their ratio does seem to be quite a bit better than mealworms – as far as I know, to date.
But I think I’ll wait and see how things go with them and stick to hog food and kitten biscuits, for now.
This feeding information is quite useful and easy to follow:
http://www.valewildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Feeding-wild-hedgehogs.pdf
But calci-worms not included yet.Hi Annker
I’m not sure about the addiction thing. Time will tell, I suppose, but their ratio does seem to be quite a bit better than mealworms – as far as I know, to date.
But I think I’ll wait and see how things go with them and stick to hog food and kitten biscuits, for now.
This feeding information is quite useful and easy to follow:
http://www.valewildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Feeding-wild-hedgehogs.pdf
But calci-worms not included yet.As a supporter of Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital I today received the Winter issue of the Newsletter.
On page 6 there is a section on Helping Hedgehogs. It includes asking for donations for any cat/dog food. Then says “We aren’t fussy, we just ask that the food is meat based as hedgehogs cannot tolerate fish flavoured food”.
I understand from recent (and not so recent) posts that this is incorrect information and products containing fish is more about a hogs personal preferences than any intolerances, or am I wrong on this ?
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