Can Hedgehogs Eat Crickets?

Crickets contain a couple of beneficial nutrients hedgehogs require, so feel free to add these insects to your hedgehog’s diet. Hedgehogs in the wild tend to eat a lot of edible insects, including crickets, roaches, and grasshoppers. So crickets can be regarded as a natural food them. Nevertheless, a hedgehog’s diet shouldn’t consist solely of crickets alone since they need to eat various food to derive all the nutrients they need.

Health Benefits Of Crickets For Hedgehogs

Let’s take a look at some health benefits of crickets for hedgehogs.

Fiber

Crickets contain a lot of fiber, a component that is lacking in many feeder other feeder insects. Hedgehogs need fiber in their diet to promote digestive health, prevent constipation, alleviate diarrhea, and mitigate other gastrointestinal issues.

Gut-Loading

Crickets can be gut loaded to provide additional nutrients to hedgehogs when they eat them. Crickets are not picky eaters, so gut-loading them is uncomplicated and inexpensive.

Protein

Pet hedgehogs require a diet that contains substantial amounts of proteins which crickets have in abundance. Protein is an essential nutrient in hedgehogs’ food since it helps to build and repair body tissues, support the immune system, and much more.

Calcium-To-Phosphorus Ratio

The ideal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in a hedgehog’s food should be between 2:1 and 1:1. This means the amount of calcium in the food needs to be twice as much or equal to the amount of phosphorus. Crickets have a relatively low amount of calcium and a high amount of phosphorus, making them an unideal food for hedgehogs. However, this problem can be resolved by gut-loading the crickets with calcium-rich foods or dusting them with calcium powder before offering them to hedgehogs. Doing this guarantees that hedgehogs receive adequate calcium when they consume crickets.

Health Risks Of Crickets For Hedgehogs

These are the health risks associated with feeding hedgehogs some crickets.

Fat

Hedgehogs can develop obesity from eating too many crickets due to their amount of fat. Hedgehogs can quickly get obese if you don’t feed them the right food in the right quantities. So ensure you don’t feed your hedgehog too many crickets at a go.

Diseases And Parasites

Crickets are infamous for their ability to spread dangerous diseases and parasites. Hedgehogs can quickly get sick if they eat the wrong crickets. That’s why it’s important to always buy feeder crickets from reputable breeders and pet stores. Feeding hedgehogs crickets found in your home or the wild is strongly discouraged because of the risk of exposure to unknown diseases and parasites that they may carry.

What Types Of Crickets Can Hedgehogs Eat?

Crickets are typically sold by breeders and pet shops in two forms – live and freeze-dried. Although hedgehogs can consume both types of crickets, it is generally recommended to feed them live crickets whenever possible. Feeding hedgehogs live crickets is preferable because it lets them chase and subdue the crickets rather than eat them directly from their food bowl. Chasing live crickets helps keep hedgehogs mentally stimulated and physically fit. On the other hand, eating freeze-dried crickets, which are already dead, deprives them of the mental and physical stimulation they experience from pursuing and consuming live crickets. However, feel free to feed your hedgehog some freeze-dried crickets if you want to since they retain about 97% of the nutrients found in live crickets.

How To Pick The Best Crickets For Your Hedgehog

It would be best if you got the crickets you want to feed your hedgehog from a reputable source. Feeder crickets are popular, so you won’t find it challenging to see them on sale in pet shops and breeding stores.

Here are a couple of things to look out for if you want to buy some live crickets for your hedgehog.

The crickets should be lively and active.
The crickets should not be discolored.
The crickets should have no apparent injuries on their body.
The crickets and the container used to hold them should be clean and free from mold and other contaminants.

Alternatively, you can always get some freeze-dried crickets for your hedgehog if you don’t want the live ones.

How To Feed Crickets To Your Hedgehog

The first thing you should always do when you want to feed some live crickets to your hedgehog is to gut load the crickets first. This simply means feeding the crickets a day before you let your hedgehog eat them. Feeding crickets is relatively cheap since they can be gut-loaded with food scraps. However, it’s best to feed them juicy fruits and vegetables instead.

Crickets are jumpers and can easily escape if placed in a hedgehog’s food bowl. For this reason, it is recommended to place the hedgehog and a few crickets in a large container from which the crickets can’t escape. This also allows hedgehogs to hunt the crickets like in the wild. You can use any large container as the designated location for the hunt. Just make sure whatever container you choose is wide enough for your hedgehog to navigate freely and too high for the crickets to escape from.

You can also use a feeder bin so the crickets will be trapped inside without any means of escaping.

Alternatively, you can freeze the crickets to stun them so your hedgehog can easily grab and eat them. Freezing crickets is relatively easy too. All you have to do is to place them in a small closed-up container or plastic bag. And then, leave the container/bag in the freezer for more than 5 minutes. After that, remove the container or bag from the freezer and drop the crickets into your hedgehog’s food bowl for them to eat.

Remember to clean up once your hedgehog is done with the food.

How Often Can Hedgehogs Eat Crickets?

Hedgehogs should be allowed to eat crickets about two to three times per week. It’s usually a good idea to feed hedgehogs small crickets rather than the bigger ones so they don’t get full quickly. Two or three small cricket can easily satisfy most hedgehogs.

How To Store Crickets For Your Hedgehog

It’s a good idea to store crickets so they’ll always be readily available whenever your hedgehog wants to eat. How you’re going to keep the crickets will wholly depend on how many you procured. You can store a couple of crickets in a small plastic container. However, you’ll need a bigger enclosure, preferably a small glass aquarium or a large plastic tote, if you want to store hundreds or thousands of them.

To ensure the crickets do not dry out, simply place their enclosure in a warm location, shielded from wind and direct sunlight. For crickets to thrive, it’s essential to maintain the temperature of their enclosure within the range of 60-90°F (15-32°C). So it may be necessary to acquire a heat source and thermostat if the place you’re keeping their enclosure drops below this range.

To create a humid environment in the cricket enclosure, spread a layer of vermiculite about one to two inches thick on the bottom, and place two plastic containers with saturated sponges on the same side as the soil.

Ensure you also drill holes in the enclosure if it’s not well-ventilated. Make sure the holes you drill aren’t too large, so the crickets can’t escape.

As we mentioned earlier, crickets are easy to feed, so all you have to do is feed them some fruits, vegetables and kitchen scraps as often as possible.

Conclusion

Crickets are a fantastic food for hedgehogs, so feel free to add them to your hedgehog’s diet list as soon as possible. Their availability, inexpensive cost and ease of storage make them an ideal food for hedgehogs in a pinch. Crickets are not the most nutritious food out there and should not be the only food a hedgehog eats. So ensure you feed your hedgehogs other animals, fruits and vegetables too.

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