The short answer for a young hedgehog
A young African pygmy hedgehog is fed once a day in the sense that matters: a fresh portion of its staple diet goes down in the evening, just before or just as it wakes, and stays available through the night. Hedgehogs are nocturnal grazers rather than meal-eaters, so a hoglet does not need breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a human timetable. What it needs during its first two months at home is a reliably full bowl at night plus a morning check that it did not empty the bowl hours before dawn. If the bowl is scraped clean by morning, the evening portion was too small for a growing animal and should be increased slightly.
Why the first two months run on free overnight access
A hoglet in its first two months at home is still building body mass quickly, and its stomach is small relative to its energy needs. Restricting a young hedgehog to a single small measured scoop can leave it short during its most active hours, when it is running its wheel, exploring, and foraging. Free access to the staple diet overnight lets the young hedgehog regulate its own intake across the night. The morning check matters because a bowl emptied at midnight means several hungry hours before the next feed, and repeated hungry nights show up as slow weight gain at exactly the age when gain should be steady.
What an evening feed actually looks like
The evening feed for a young African pygmy hedgehog means fresh staple food in a clean, heavy, low-sided bowl placed in the same spot each night, stale leftovers tipped away, and water refreshed. Insects such as mealworms belong in this routine as a small treat portion a few times a week, not as an extra daily meal, because a hoglet that fills up on treats leaves the balanced staple behind. Keep the timing anchored to the hedgehog's waking rather than the clock on the wall: if the household's evenings shift, feed when the hedgehog stirs, and keep handling and play sessions after it has had a chance to eat.
How the schedule changes as the hedgehog grows
As a young African pygmy hedgehog approaches adult size, usually across its first half year, the free-access phase ends and the schedule becomes one measured evening meal. Adult hedgehogs gain weight easily, and a bowl that is always full turns a healthy appetite into a round hedgehog that struggles to curl tightly and runs less. The transition is gradual: weigh the hedgehog weekly, and once weight gain levels off, start measuring the evening portion down in small steps while watching that the hedgehog still finishes most of it by morning. Treats stay occasional, and the morning job changes from topping up food to simply checking what was left.
Signs the feeding rhythm needs a rethink
A young hedgehog that leaves most of its bowl untouched for two nights running, loses weight between weekly weigh-ins, or produces persistently runny droppings after a diet change deserves attention rather than a bigger portion. Sudden appetite loss in a hedgehog can follow a too-cold room, since a chilled hedgehog eats less and moves less, so check the enclosure temperature before blaming the food. If a hoglet refuses food entirely for more than a night, or an adult keeps gaining despite measured meals, an exotic-animal veterinarian should look at the animal and the feeding log together. KinsLe Care Teams helps here because the person who fed the hedgehog each night can mark the task complete with a timestamp, turning a vague worry about appetite into a clear record of what was offered and eaten.