pictures will be coming soon!

Before you get a hedgehog

Hedgehogs can make wonderful house pets, if they get proper care & attention.  Generally, they are pretty low maintenance BUT they can be costly & time consuming, too!  Hedgehogs can live for up to 10 years, but the average life span is 3-5 years.  Hedgehogs usually costs anywhere from 125-250 dollars, depending on the breeder, the hedgehog & the location you are buying from.  Hedgehog’s diets are fairly complex, needing premium quality cat kibble.  They also require certain extra insects, meats etc….  They will need to be handled often, to maintain friendliness.  There are other extra accessories that they’ll need in their cage too.

You will need to find a vet that treats hedgehogs, in case your pet needs to visit a vet.  Hedgehogs are also illegal in some states & towns, so be sure that you check to be sure first! 

A hedgehog may be the right pet for you, take this quiz to find out!

1. I am able to pay all vet bills that may arise
2. I am able to pay for all food, bedding, accessories, etc, that may be needed
3. I am able to spend time with my pet regularly & also have time to clean its cage & care for it.
4. I will be able to care for my pet for up to 8 years, or however its life span may be.
5. Hedgehogs are legal in my state/town.

If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these questions, then a hedgehog may be the right pet for you!

What to look for

When looking for a hedgehog, here are some things to look for:

 

• Friendly hoglets
• Clear eyes
• Clean nose & back end
• Clean overall body
• No patches of missing fur or quills (it could be a sign of mites)
• Clean feet & trimmed nails
• Hedgehogs free from sores, wounds, or injuries

Things to look for in a breeder:

 

• Generally clean cage, supplies, & etc.
• An USDA licensed breeder if they have more than 3 breeding females
• Knowledgeable breeder
• Someone who won’t sell babies any younger than 6 weeks old
• A breeder that doesn’t breed females until at least 6 months of age

 

• A solid bottomed cage with room for all accessories & room for play(no tanks or multi-leveled cages)
• A wheel with a solid floor usually 12”
• A water bottle (or ceramic bowl) that will hold at least 8oz.
• A heavy or ceramic food bowl that will hold at least ¼ c. of food
• A igloo or something to hide in
• Nail clippers
• A high quality cat food(ask your breeder what to feed the hedgie)
• Freeze-dried or live mealworms(NO SUPERWORMS)
• Aspen, Carefresh, kiln dried pine or a liner for bedding(NO cedar, regular pine or corncob)
• Puppy or baby shampoo

 

Optional(but recommended) supplies

• A digital scale that weighs in grams
• A litter box

Colors & patterns

Hedgehogs come in many colors & patterns.  Some patterns include, snowflake (30-85% of quills are white) & pinto (blotches of white randomly placed on back).  Some colors include: Apricot, Cinnacot, Chocolate, & Dark Gray.  The most common being Gray & Dark Gray (some people call this ‘standard’).  These are only a few out of many, many, colors! 

 

Your Hedgehog’s Size

There really is not an ‘average’ or ‘normal’ weight for a hedgehog, YOU, the owner has to know what the average weight is for YOUR hedgehog!  Some hedgehogs can weigh as little as 200 grams (without being underweight) & others as large as 625 grams (with out being overweight).   For a general idea, an underweight hedgehog would have an ‘hourglass shape’ & his sides would appear sunken in.   An over weight hedgehog might NOT be able to role up in a ball, or would have rolls of fat.  A healthy hedgehog should have a ‘tear-drop’ shape when all of his quills are flat!  A scale that weighs in grams would be a good investment for any hedgehog owner.

Sexing

 pictures coming soon!
It’s pretty easy to sex a hedgehog.  Look at the two pictures below.  The male has what appears to be a ‘belly button’ about a third up his stomach & the female doesn’t.

Hygiene

You will have to clean you hedgehog’s cage, how often, depends on the hedgehog.  On average, maybe every week (give or take a little).  If he uses a litter box, the litter box will likely have to be cleaned more than once a week, but the cage will have to be cleaned less often, maybe every other week!  Hedgehogs tend to use their wheel as a restroom while running on his wheel, so his wheel will need to be wiped of often! 

 

Trimming nails

You’re also going to need to trim his nails every once in a while!  Grab his little foot & look for the quick (that’s the pink vein in the nail), make sure that you cut BELOW that, or else he will bleed.  A good thing to have on hand is ‘Kwik-Stop’, which will stop the bleeding in case you were to hit a quick.  If you don’t have that, try flour instead!

 

Your Hedgehog’s cage

The cage you buy should have solid floors with no holes (that means NO wire grating etc….), if the floors aren’t solid, your hedgehog will get sores & could injure himself by getting his little feet caught in the holes!  It should be 1 leveled.  I don’t recommend glass tanks (not enough ventilation) or multi leveled (could fall) cages.  Hedgehogs can climb pretty well, so his cage should have a secure top.  Just be cause then CAN climb, doesn’t mean they SHOULD.  They can really injure them self if they fall even a few inches!

On the floor you can put, Carefresh, Aspen, Kiln dried pine or a liner for bedding.  If you use a liner make sure that it has no lose threads that your hedgehog could get his claws caught on.  Also if you use a liner you will have to wash it EVERY DAY unless he is litter trained.  You may be able to train your pet to use a litter box, if you do litter train; cat litter (especially scoop able) is not recommended.  Make sure that your hedgie does not eat his bedding. DO NOT use regular pine or cedar bedding; it will give him repertory problems.  Sheets of paper aren’t recommended, as they could slip & fall!   Also, make sure that you don’t use corn cob bedding on males, as it can give them urinary problems. 

 

Be sure you get a wheel for your hedgehog so he can stay fit.  The wheel should have solid floors & should be at least 8” in diameter.  An 8” wheel may work, but most likely will be too small for a larger adult hedgehog.

You can set up the cage how you would like to.  Avoid placing your hedgie’s cage in direct sun light or by windows, vents, heaters & etc.  Also be sure that your hedgehog is kept in a room that gets plenty of daily light & is kept fairly warm (i.e. 68-78 degrees), or else he may try to hibernate & that can kill a hedgehog.  He won’t be fat enough & the African Pygmy Hedgehog isn’t created to hibernate anyway!  A too warm house can kill a hedgehog also.

 

To help him stay warm, try a heating pad kept on low beneath his cage (keep an eye on it, it could be a fire hazard), a Snuggle Safe Heat Disc (sold by Petsmart), or just turning the heat up a little in your house.

 

How many Hedgehogs can I keep? 

 

Breeding

I am not going in to breeding in this pamphlet, if you are interested in breeding, please contact me & I will help you out!  Housing a male & female together is a total disaster.  Unless one of them are infertile, the female will most likely become pregnant.  With the male in the cage with her, she will be very stressed & kill the babies.  If she doesn’t kill them, the male will.  Breeding hedgehogs is not an easy, fun thing.  It has many sad, heart breaking moments.  It can be very expensive and difficult.  Before you even consider breeding, I recommend that you have experience as a hedgehog owner first, that you do tons and tons research and that you have an experienced mentor .  
 

Self anointing  

Self anointing is triggered when a hedgie smells a new or unusual smell.  They lick & chew on the scented object.  This makes their mouth foam up.  Then they spread the foam all over their backs with their tongue, yuck!  No one really knows why they do this.  Be sure to keep an eye on him while loose to make sure he doesn’t get in to anything harmful!  Sometimes you’ll think you hedgehog is being ‘aggressive’ by biting you, but you really have an odd scent or taste on your hands & he is just trying to taste you!!  This can be avoided if you just wash your hands with unscented soap before handling!

Feeding

You can feed your hedgehog a high quality cat food.  NEVER feed dog food.  ALWAYS have fresh water available!!  When choosing a food look at the ingredients in the ideal food, there should be no meat by products, no generic named fats or proteins (such as animal fat & meat meal instead of chicken fat & lamb meal), no food fragments(such as brewers rice & corn gluten) & no artificial preservatives. 

Also look at the guaranteed analysis.  In every food you buy(whether it meets all the ideals above or not), the protein content should be around 30% & the fat content should be fairly low, at around 6-14%.

These ‘perfect’ foods can be hard to find, but are worth it, your pet will be more happy & healthy with less likely health problems in the future!!  But if you can’t find any of these foods, try to make sure that all the non-healthy stuff are as far down on the list as possible & that real meat is one of the 1^st couple ingredients! 

When changing foods, do it gradually!  Here is a list of some great foods, there are some others out there too, you just need to know what to look for!  Out of all my extensive research; quality, diet cat food has far exceeded every hedgehog food I’ve found.  Most of the brands of the cat food listed below come in a diet or light form.  Most regular cat foods have to much fat content in them for a hedgehog so the diet or light form would be best.

1. Felidae Platinum
2. Wellness
3. Royal Canin
4. Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul
5. Innova
6. California Natural
7. Life's Abundance
8. Katz-N-Flocken

You’ll have to keep an eye on his weight, as hedgehogs WILL over eat & WILL be come over weight; you may have to find the right amount to maintain weight (which varies), start at 3-4 table spoons a day, & add or take away from there!  In addition to dry food your hedgehog will need meal worms & other treats for variety.  Each hedgehog should get 1 of the following 1 or 2 times weekly; meal worms, hard boiled eggs, cooked (unseasoned) chicken, low fat cottage cheese, baby food or canned cat food.   You should only give them a teaspoon or so of their treat, or else they may become over weight.  Also I would offer a bit of fresh raw chopped fruit or veggies (make sure that it isn’t on the list below); on occasion, if you can get him to eat it (some hedgehogs won’t eat veggies or fruit). Meal worms come in two forms, freeze-dried & live.  You can feed either kind.  Hedgehogs are insectivores so you can feed them many kinds of insects such as, meal worms, crickets, silk worms & beetles (no super worms). 

 

What NOT to feed

Below is a list of things NOT to feed, if in doubt, just stay away from it, or ask someone knowledgeable about hedgehog nutrition!

Any sugary, salty, fatty, stringy, chewy or seasoned foods

Chocolate or caffeinated food/drinks

Raisins

Citrus fruits

Raw carrots

Celery

Corn

Onion

Avocado

Mushrooms

Raw meats

Pork

Nuts & seeds(of any kind)

Dog food

Bones

Milk

Bread

Wild caught bugs (could carry disease or pesticides)

Wax worms(too fatty) & super worms(will bite hedgehogs)

Cold foods (only serve room temp.)

Nothing that is considered ‘junk food’ for people

Alcohol

Artificial sugars

Nothing known to be cancer causing, since they are prone cancer

Honey