Is it true that hedgehogs can be fed milk?

People often meet in the summer outside the city or in the country of hedgehogs, and one of the most popular treats that they offer animals are milk. We decided to check whether to feed hedgehogs with dairy products.

On the Internet you can find many stories About how people, having met hedgehogs, Feed their milk and dairy products. Users questions and answers InterestedHow to feed hedgehogs, and also often get advice to pour milk to them. They ask, whether these animals drink milk, and on Yandex.Ce. In the comments on social networks you can find hot Discussions The fact that our grandmothers also fed hedgehogs with milk and with animals everything was fine. Such tips can be found even on sites Zoo.

Contrary to common opinion, it is impossible to feed the hedgehog with milk. This is evidenced by experts Moscow zoo, and experts environmental portals, and representatives "Mospriroda", And Veterinarians. The fact is that hedgehogs, like other animals, eat milk only in early childhood, it is not included in the diet of adults. In addition, hedgehogs do not tolerate lactose, they do not have enzymes necessary for its splitting. If you offer a hedgehog, he will drink it with pleasure, but then he will feel bad: the animal can begin diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration and even death. The same applies to other dairy products - yogurts, cottage cheese, cheese, sour cream.

Newborn hedgehogs up to a six -year -old age still drink milk, but cow's milk, which is most often found in our refrigerators, does not fit them. If you have found abandoned by a mother, he was hearing, experts Consult Pour them with goat or sheep’s milk, since it almost does not contain lactose. Artificial substitutes for cat or dog milk are also suitable. 

Adult hedgehogs are insectivorous, in the wild they They eat larvae of caterpillars, insects, snails, slugs and even small rodents and frogs. It is quite difficult to make a full -fledged diet for a hedgehog at home. Nevertheless, experts Recommend Feed hedgehogs with raw meat or fish (cleansed of the skin and bones), as well as dried flour worms, larvae of May beetles, grasshoppers - all this can be bought in a pet store. There are ready -made feed for hedgehogs, which include all the necessary trace elements. You can add vegetable food to the diet - vegetables, fruits, berries. 

Thus, if the hedgehog was wandered into your country site or you decided to start it as a domestic animal, you can’t drink it with milk or feed it with dairy products, in any case, in the worst case, this can lead to the death of the animal. You can treat a hedgehog with raw meat or fish, although in the summer, in the wild, hedgehogs themselves cope with the prey of food. 

Not true

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