title: Feeding behavior and nutrition of the african pygmy hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris).
abstract: Despite their wide global distribution and popularity as pets, little is known concerning specific nutritional requirements of hedgehogs. They inhabit a wide variety of environments from desert to temperate forest, and they display flexible and opportunistic feeding behaviors. Natural diets include invertebrate and vertebrate prey, carrion, and plant material. Hedgehogs have enzymatic ability to digest chitin from insect exoskeletons as a dietary fiber source, but they do not seem to digest cellulose efficiently. Captive diets based on nutritionally balanced commercially available products containing moderate levels of protein (30%-50%, dry basis) and fat (10%-20%) are suitable for the omnivorous hedgehog.
authors.affiliation: Sustainable Program Research, Novus International Inc., 20 Research Drive, St. Charles, MO 63304, USA. edierenfeld@aol.com
authors.forename: Ellen S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Dierenfeld