What are good treats?
Lorraine Tremblay has compiled a WWW page with advice and suggestions about ferret treats. Most ferrets enjoy some fruits and vegetables. Although they’re not necessary for good nutrition if you’re feeding your pets a high-quality cat food, small amounts of these won’t hurt. Just be sure you don’t fill your ferret up on fruit, since he’ll need to eat his regular food to get the required protein. Too much of nearly anything can be harmful, so try to vary your treats. Some popular suggestions: a slice of banana (mashed, so it’s more digestible), raisins, peanut butter, bits of pear, peppermint (small licks), freeze-dried liver (sold as cat treats), Pounce cat treats, puffed rice cakes, green beans, wheat crackers, Ferretone, Petromalt … Try feeding your ferret pretty much anything, in small pieces. You never know what yours will consider a fabulous treat. I’ve heard of ferrets going wild for everything from spaghetti to blueberries.
There are a number of different things that can be given to hedgehogs as treats — but all in moderation. Among the things that hedgehogs tend to like as treats are occasional small amounts of fresh fruit, and from personal experience I can tell you that all of my hedgehogs, will kill for a mealworm or a small taste of cream, and love raisins (but Velcro generally just chewed on them rather than actually eating much). Other ideas are crickets, hardboiled egg which is finely chopped, and cottage cheese. Mealworms are available from many pet stores and are also available by mail order (at least in the U.S.) from companies like Rainbow Mealworms [2.1], and GrubCo. Here’s a suggestion from Anja van der Werf for live food treats: You can “enrich” mealworms by feeding them fruit or a vitamin supplement for a few days before you feed them to the hedgehogs. You can also “gut feed” mealworms by feeding them for a few days on dry cat or dog food before feeding them to your hedgehogs. While s
