Your hedgehog should be fed a base diet should consist of a good quality cat food or hedgehog food. Whenever possible supplement with their natural diet of insects.

Food Bowl

The food bowl needs to be fairly wide and heavy to prevent your pet from dumping out its contents and using it as a toy. Small ceramic crocks that are designed for small rodents are perfect food dishes for hedgehogs. The width or diameter of the dish can be 3 to 6 inches and it should be no more than 3 inches high.

Water Bottles

Water bottles are preferred over open dishes. Hedgehogs love to fill open water dishes with shavings and this prevents them from getting enough water to drink.

Obesity

Since a healthy hedgehog is a bit on the plump side naturally, determining the difference between a healthy animal's "chubby" condition and obesity can be somewhat difficult. Since there is such a wide variety of size in domestic stock these days, an obese hedgehog can be as little as 8 ounces to as much as 2 pounds in weight, so weight guidelines are of little use in identifying a fat hedgehog! 
Of far more use to you than a set of scales is a weekly or monthly visual inspection of your pet's front legs and chin. While a hedgehog in its normal trim will be a bit chubby in these two locations, an obese specimen will have a double chin and "ham-hocks" for legs and sometimes even rolls of fat under the arm-pits. Such animals will be so fat that they will even be incapable of rolling themselves into a ball! 
If your pet should become this fat eliminate all treats from its diet but do not reduce the amount of dry food - the primary source of necessary proteins, vitamins and minerals. If after a month you see no evidence of weight loss, change the type of dry food that you are feeding to one that has a fat content of at least 20 percent. The theory is that the added fat will cause your pet to "bulk-up" and eat less and will actually help it to lose weight.

Healthy Diet For a Hedgehog

Diet Suggestions:

 Pumpkin for constipation (Canned)
 Insectivore Diet
 Meal Worms 6-10
 Wax Worms 1-2 teaspoons (3-4 times per week)
 Crickets 1-2
 Mixed Frozen Veggies 1-2 Tablespoons
 Diced leafy dark greens – ½ teaspoon (Spinach, Kale, Collard/Beet/Mustard Greens)
 Diced Carrot – ¼ Teaspoon
 Diced Apple – ¼ Teaspoon
 Diced Banana – ¼ Teaspoon
 Diced Grape or Raisin – ¼ Teaspoon
 Dry Reduced-Calorie Cat food or mix canned and dry (Iams, Eukanuba, or Science Diet)
 Hedgehog Food

* Contact Hedgehog Breeder Jessica Elrod (265-9087) for information on care and specialized diets.