Poggy Getting Better

Who's this white mustached fellow?  Oh, it's Poggy EATING WHIPPED CREAM! 

 Ever since finding out that Poggle's tongue was injured, I have been trying to find something that he will eat instead of his hard kibble.  

At first it was Ensure, then it was milk, then it was crushed cooked egg with water, then it was EGG TARTS, and now it is FRESH MANGO CAKE AND WHIPPED CREAM.

Poggles is very pleased with the recent menu changes.  He even had bits of the soft part of  a croissant.  He's moving up on the food chain!

 I think the vet would be horrified that I am feeding my hedgehog such unsuitable foods.  However, the good news is that Poggles will readily eat these "junk foods" despite his injured tongue.  This is a good thing since he really needs to be eating.

 Thanks to these yummy foods, Poggles is starting to poop and pee again.  It is still very small amounts and still dark green, but still better than nothing.

However, I decided that it was probably not such a good thing to be eating so many junk foods.  A lovely reader suggested baby food so I picked some up today to test it out. (Thanks, Sherry!)

Poggle's regular kibble is chicken and pea or duck and pea so I bought one small jar of chicken with broth and one of peas.

You will be pleased to know that Master Pogglebee ate all of the baby food on those spoons and licked the spoon almost perfectly clean.  I have since refilled those spoons for the night.  I was amazed.  I think that's the most I've seen him eat in one sitting since he got sick.

I think his tongue is starting to heal.  I gave him some Masago to taste yesterday and he started to annoint with it.  When he first hurt his tongue he stopped immediately after attempting to annoint.  This time, he didn't stop right away, but didn't do it for very long either.  He is clearly starting to eat a little more every day, and he only occasionally rubs his face on the ground or leans it against side of the litter pan like his face hurts.  Whenever I see him do that, I gently rub his chin and he seems to like it as he doesn't move away.  Then I offer him cold milk.  I think the milk helps as he always drinks quite a few sips/licks once he agrees to drink it.

Sometimes when he is eating, I hear crunching sounds even though he is not eating anything hard or crunchy.  I stop him when I hear that sound since I worry that he is biting his tongue or grinding his teeth on a weird angle.  Usually rubbing his chin gently will encourage him to stop.

I am hoping that Poggy will continue to heal and get better soon.  I think the baby food will help since it is so close to his usual kibble.  Hopefully his pooping and peeing will go back to normal and he can gain back some weight.

Have a happy day!