Heggies Thinking about getting a hedgehog

The best advice I can give you is to talk to the member here named Lydia. She is awesome when it comes to hedgehog info.

Instead of buying from a breeder, there are hedgehogs for adoptions too.

I have looked into getting one through adoption, and I cant seem to find one. Plus part of me is hesitent since it would be my first hedgehog and if I don't get one that was brought up well it might be too hard for me. Even though I loved my guinea pigs and I spent at least a hour a day with them each and a hour with them together Connie was always a biter, she still is. Plus right now I think it is best to get as much information as I can and then make a decision one way or another.

I have a hedgehog!

I really didn't realise there were rescues with hedgehogs in... but they are probably not as common in the UK! There are hardly anyone over here that have hedgies! I was very lucky to find one who lives within 2 hours away. That's great that you know a breeder. That's really good that you are doing your research and spending a lot of time to prepare.

Oscar lives in a 2x3 C&C cage in my bedroom. I think you could possibly get away with a 2x2, I wouldn't go any smaller than that though.

They live for about 4 - 6 years (similar to that of a guinea pig). Oscar is 3 and a half years now I think!

I really love having him as a pet. He sleeps in the day usually, but if I want to get him out he will happily wake up for me. I never hear him in the night when he's awake! He has the occasional bath because he's quite clumsy and steps in his droppings.:yuck:

If we do decide to get a hedgehog I was thinking about a 2x3 c&c cage. I don't know where we are going to put it yet, we have room in our reptile room and also our guest bedroom but I am leaning towards our reptile room but then if we have a baby it will go into the guest room. When we make it, we will make sure we make it so that we are able to move it from room to room if we have guests so they wont be bothered by the hedge sounds. I read all about how to give a hedgie bath as well as the foot bath. Do you know anyone that is allergic to hedgehogs? I like the idea of getting the hog from a breeder because then I have support for all the questions I have. By the way you have a cute little guy!

mefingas said:

if I don't get one that was brought up well it might be too hard for me.

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It's a myth that there is something wrong with rescue animals. Unlike a breeder or petshop a rescue is more likely to have had the animal checked by a vet. You actually have a better chance of getting a healthy, well adjusted animal. A rescuer also spends quality time with it's animals and will know the creature's quirks, personality and special needs better as well. You will also get better info on care for the animal because the rescuer is in it for the love of the animal and not out to turn a profit.

Myspoiltpiggies said:

That's great that you know a breeder.

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No, it's really not *great*. Hedgehogs are in shelters too and there are many hedgehog specific rescues. If the animals are showing up in rescue then that means that there are enough irresponsible breeders who are not taking back the unwanted animals they breed and forcing others to take over where they are leaving off.

I highly recommend finding a hedgehog to rescue instead of helping a breeder continue to add to the overpopulation problem. If Mefingas is willing to spend all this time researching about hedgies to insure they do everything right it seems that spending some time locating an animal to save, instead of buying, makes just as much sense.

Here are 3 hedgehog rescues/rescuers I found in Michigan

MICHIGAN: Cindy De La Rosa, Hazel Park, MI. Hedgies In The Park Email: [email protected]

MICHIGAN: Paul and Rita Excell, Oxford, MI. Telephone: (248) 628-1104 E-Mail: [email protected]

MICHIGAN: Maurita Plouff, Royal Oak, MI. Telephone: (248) 589-5576 E-Mail [email protected]

Main adoption webpage. They help find hedgies to rescue throughout the country The Hedgehog Welfare Society

More hedgehog rescues/rescuers listed here The Hedgehog Welfare Society

Okay, I'm sorry - I was not aware that there was an overpopulation of hedgehogs. Thank you for putting me straight. When I got Oscar I had no idea there were even rescues for wild ones, let alone pet ones! That's why I got him from who I got him from.

I certainly agree that a rescue hedgie would be just as healthy, if not healthier, than a breeders' hedgie.

Thank you mefingas - he is very cute! He is definately one of the best pets I have had. He can sometimes be a tad grumpy with me but he soons settles and he hardly ever tries to spike me.

I have thought about adopting one. For one thing I can't even think about getting one till after Christmas since we are going down to North Carolina and we already have enough animals that some is going to have to come to our house and take care of, but reptiles aren't too much to take care of, our snake can go a week without eating and the same is true about our skink since he already is in winter mode and not eating much. So as long as someone comes every day to check on them, give them fresh water and try to feed a few mealworms to our molly we are good.
VoodooJoint- All the rescue people are on the other side of the state for me and would be more then a 2 hour drive. My reserves for rescuing one is if it rolls into a ball a lot it is hard to break them of that habit, I have talked to a few other people who have told me that. When I did do a petfinder search the closet match was one in new york. Thanks for the information. When and if I decide that a hedgehog would work out for our family I will look into adoption again.

I can't actually find any shelters in the UK. It'd be really surprising if there is an overpopulation of hedgehogs in the UK though because most people haven't even heard of pet hedgehogs!

I clicked on the link you sent me and I also clicked on some of their links and I clicked on another websites links and it said that for the first time hedgehog owner their "strongly" recommend that you get one from a recommended breader because of the support before and after the sale and also adopting one may be hard because if the hedgehog wasn't handled properly you will end up with a ball of spikes. Not that I am saying I wouldn't adopt but the only way I think I would adopt is if the hog isn't too grumpy and doesn't have too many behavioral issues.

One of the links I provided did that? If so then I'm rather ticked off that a rescue would steer people in the direction of breeders.

Well, I will keep everything in mind, I will check out adoption but if there is more then a 3 hour drive I may go for the breeder which works at the same company as my husband works. I want to be close to someone if I need advice or anything like that. If I can find a hog that isn't too grumpy through adoption I will go for that one.

Your husband's co-worker should be willing to help, even if you get the hedgehog from a rescue, just like people here give advise to others who got their guinea pigs from breeders, even though this is a pro-rescue forum. If your husband's co-worker refuses to help and rather see the animal get sick, you'll know he's just in it for the money. And if he really cares about hedgehogs, he should be happy that you are rescuing one who really needs a forever home.

I have a picture of some bay hedgehogs.
They are so adorable!
https://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f65/twinkies_piggies/cid_000901c644645db355109c5fa146wes.jpg[/IMG]

Those pictures are great! I am in no hurry for a hog so I have time. I think they would help and give any advice needed if I rescued one. I still am on the fence about rescuing one just because I know it will be harder to make the hog friendly, over getting a young one who's been handled correctly. I will keep you posted. I will keep an eye on rescuing but it needs to be within a 3 hour drive any way of where I live.

emoxrobot said:

The best advice I can give you is to talk to the member here named Lydia. She is awesome when it comes to hedgehog info.

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I'm blushing!

We have 4 hedgies and although I love them to bits, I always want to caution potential owners, in advance, that it's not all sunshine and roses. Hedgies are very uncommon "pets" and as such have many unique requirements. They're deadly cute, but keep in mind that what comes with the cute are the following:

- They aren't cheap; they require specialty blends of high-quality cat foods (I mean really actually high-quality) to eat to have proper nutrition, require regular veterinary visits with an exotics expert (who could be far from where you are; and a GP-expert is not the same thing as a hedgheog expert), and require very specific heating and lighting conditions to keep from attempting hibernation and therefore dying.

- Hedgies are VERY prone to getting mites. These mites cause them to have ongoing bouts of dry, flaky skin which often does cause allergic reactions in their caregivers and therefore leads to them getting re-homed. One of our boys has a reduced immune system due to getting severe pneumonia when he was young and now needs to be almost continually on Revolution drops... not cheap. There are maybe 2-3 drops in one bottle and 3 bottles is nearly $90 CDN. Hedgies also shed their quills as well as their dry skin... keep it in mind because when they get in your carpet and you accidentally step on one: OUCH!

- Hedgies need to run on a large (min. 11" diametre) flat-surfaced wheel to get exercise (that is in addition to a minimum of a 2x3 C&C cage) and while running they do their "business", which results in wheels covered in poo & pee. This means regularly scrubbing out poopy wheels and giving footbathes on a very regular basis to avoid skin irritation.

- In addition, hedgies require more regular bathing than guinea pigs do (often due to the poo and the mites) and need to be rinsed with vitamin E oil in order to soothe their dry, flaky skin... also an additional cost.

- When hedgies bite - it REALLY HURTS! They clamp on and don't let go. They are insectivores by nature and as such have some great chompers. Unless they are handled very regularly, they become less and less relaxed with people. Some hedgies never relax with people; regardless of whether they're babies when brought into the home. One of our boys, Gus, is a permanantly timid guy. He can never relax with us around. We've learned to love and appreciate just watching him and seeing him enjoy his habitat, but we'll never be able to cuddle. And Luke has a biting "issue". We're not sure why; he just does. We've learned coping techniques for never getting our fingers in the way.

I could go on, but I'm insanely sick right now (hence why I'm at home and able to type this)... if you do a search in this sub-forum (the "Other" one), under my name, you'll find numerous other posts I've written on what to do and not to do with hedgies. If you decide to get one, then make sure that you go into the process with your eyes FULLY OPEN and all of the information about the potential issues and the practical costs of having one. I'm happy to be here as a support; we've been through a lot with our guys - from near-death illnesses to funn adventures of "how to find the lost and silent nocturnal hedgehog who's escaped and now sleeping"... but again as has been previously stated: ADOPT! Please adopt. At least if you adopt (according to the "know the anima's personality" logic) you'll know the personality first!!

Okay - enough rambling from me... more sleep now. :yawn:

mefingas said:

I held one and I didn't seem to be allergic to it but I was wondering if it is possible? Also if we do decide to get one I was wondering what size cc cage to make for it? Is there any good books that I should read?

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I had my friend's hedgehog for a month once and I found myself to be allergic to his quills. When he would ball up, his quills poked my skin and left small red welts on my palm. They itched a lot. I couldn't handle him much at all. Try and handle them a lot to make sure you aren't allergic before buying.

Here is the best book on hedgehog care: The Hedgehog Primer

Plummie said:

Here is the best book on hedgehog care: The Hedgehog Primer

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Ergh... just FYI this book is on a breeder's website, and as far as I'm aware that could be considered a 'no no' as per the policies of this forum. The information itself is good, but I just want to put the warning out there that often that's the harsh reality of life with hedgies - a lot of the better info comes from some of the more respected breeders; like this one... and that this makes it hard to put links to good information websites since they all seems to be by breeders or linking to them. <sigh>

HOWEVER, you can also find some good hedgie info from rescue sites like this one: (broken link removed), which has great pictures, articles and links. Just ignore the part where they, too, link to breeders <double sigh>. ptimist:

VoodooJoint said:

It's a myth that there is something wrong with rescue animals.

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Actually your worng its not a myth that there is something wrong with rescued animals. Any animal that has had a bad or abusive past, which is also a lot of reasons why rescue animals turn up in rescue areas, have bad tempers or are nervouse because the owner they loved so much is not there anymore, take in example, its just like with children, if they are abandonmed they may feel worthless, or like they had done something wrong( note, I'm not saying all rescue animals have bad tempers, however its more likely) My auntie rescued two dogs ffrom a shelter, one was nervouse, and agressive the other was kind and loving. The nervouse dog was afraid of going onto the car and would bite at his owners, because he was scared that he would go back to the pound. Ya never know.