r/Hedgehog • u/Bright_Extent95 • 8h ago
r/Hedgehog • u/Jedi_JJ • Jun 20 '25
Mod Announcement Don't forget we have a discord!
discord.ggr/Hedgehog • u/v0ideater • May 24 '23
Mod Announcement Owning A Hedgehog Reality Check
Since hedgehog owners consistently buy hedgehogs without setting reasonable expectations here are some expectations to set. Adapted/expanded from u/ArcadeRivalry's post.
- Don't believe social media. Every single one I see there are obviously ridiculously posed pictures, maybe it's just me but I refuse to believe one could stay still for that long.
- Hedgehog are spiked covered prey animals prone to anxiety. While belly rub/cuddle posts get a lot of attention they are the exception due to good breeding/luck not the rule. It is very possible a hedgehog will never be comfortable being handled even after concerted effort.
- If you want to bond you need to put in a lot of commitment, patience and time to socialize them. I've seen a lot of people in groups I'm in need to re-home a hog before the first year as they can't put the time in. You need at least an hour a day socializing but realistically a lot more for them to be comfortable around you and others. We recommend getting a snuggle sack or putting them in your hoodie pouch to spend time together.
- You need a specialist vet. A lot of places might not have an exotic animal vet near you. This is vital. So make sure you have to this.
- It may not be legal to own hedgehogs in your area.
- You need heating to ensure they don't hibernate.
- You will likely be spiked, bitten and pooped on. It can be really really disheartening being spiked, hissed at or even bitten when you feel like you've made progress. Huffing and popping are natural, they are scaredy little animals.
- Hedgehogs salivate frothily on themselves when they like scents, males often have "boy time", they poop a lot, have terrible sight and will bite things that smell yummy/interesting, and require consistent cage cleanings.
- They are carnivores, while feeding fruits/vegetables can often be done safely, please feed them mainly meat-based foods ( cat food, insects, etc.)
- Since they have very limited vision they operate mainly on smell and are at risk of falling/walking off elevated areas. It is wise to assume they are making decisions based on what they smell rather than just mainly what they see. They will still try to climb and are prone to hurting themselves climbing horizontal cage bars.
- It is very likely they will dislike baths and nail trimming. We recommend trimming nails during foot bath time when they can't curl up or just holes in a towel to put their legs through.
- Hedgehogs should not be housed together. High likelihood of fighting or babies.
- We recommend heavy water bowls or chicken nipple bottles as ball water bottles can hurt them.
If you know what you are getting into, they are the most wonderful creatures ever and bring many people on this sub joy. If you feel like your hedgehog "hates" you they are just being their grumpy/terrified selves! You may be lucky and form a close bond.
r/Hedgehog • u/LazyYuukiBear • 18h ago
OC a spiky beanie filler
caught Cinna smirking at me as if saying “ha! this is mine now!”
r/Hedgehog • u/Man-idek • 14h ago
OC About to reunite
galleryI’ve been on a vacation for the past week and I’m finally returning home. I love all of my pets, but I worried about Fritter because this is the first time I’ve left him without me for more than a day 😓
I bought a hedgehog plushie while here, not as good as the real thing
r/Hedgehog • u/sneezky • 17h ago
SPLOOT! Splootin' All Around
Lady Agnes waking up to hit us with the double sploot... isn't she just the cutest?
r/Hedgehog • u/tribecalledchef • 1d ago
OC Faye Turned Four Today!
Here's a picture of her mid-anointing after she got some tomato as a treat 🥹
r/Hedgehog • u/Disastrous_Ask_733 • 1h ago
Hedgie Home Visit TikTok to discover videos!
vm.tiktok.comImportant information about hedgehogs, please watch and share, endangered species
r/Hedgehog • u/Joannanama • 1d ago
SPLOOT! Mini sploot with Pippin
galleryDespite the betrayal of been given a bath earlier! Worth not being able to move for ages ❤️
r/Hedgehog • u/Disastrous_Ask_733 • 15h ago
Hedgie Home Robert Hoffmann
youtu.beHedgehogs keep coming, I guess they’re not ready for sleep yet.
r/Hedgehog • u/theindependentonline • 1d ago
Discussion David Attenborough’s simple tip to protect hedgehogs in city gardens
independent.co.ukr/Hedgehog • u/dumper2000 • 1d ago
Question Preventative Spaying ??
galleryMy vet suggested doing a preventative spay on my new hog (Gnocchi). She’s 6 months and has a very clean bill of health. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews on this since you can’t really do anything to stop hedgehogs from licking or biting the incision site. My vet is wonderful, and I want to do what is medically recommended. I did express my hesitation for the risk versus benefit, and they were very understanding. I declined at that visit, but did say I would consider it in the future. I’m leaning towards not doing it. However, I would be kicking myself if she were to develop a cancer that could have been prevented if I did decide to do the spay. Has anyone done a spay like this on here before? If so, how was the recovery?
Edit:
Thank you all so much for the advice and sharing your stories. I will probably end up doing the spay now that I have a better idea of recovery. I am leaning towards waiting until she’s closer to a year though, which my vet had let me know is fine! Gnocchi is extremely active now so maybe she’ll be a little calmer by then too🤞🏼
r/Hedgehog • u/iwolfxre • 1d ago
Warning: Upsetting Content We’re Saying Goodbye Tonight
galleryBackground information: Izzy had been diagnosed with a uterine tumour when we got her ultrasound done in mid-late September. She would bleed from that area because of it. Everything looked fine in the scan and the tumour was small, so we booked a hysterectomy at the earliest date we could on October 29th.
Saturday night at 11PM we noticed Izzy was extremely cold and yellow. She couldn’t wobble a few steps without lying down from exhaustion, as well as spiking up every few minutes in pain. Whenever she walked she’d scoot as if she were in pain from her uterine tumour. We kept her as warm as we could as we drove down to a 24/7 emergency vet.
We got there at 12AM where her temperature was taken and was at 33.4°C, an abnormal body temperature so they put her in an incubator for 5 hours. They checked again and her temperature was at 32°C, she was not getting any warmer. They put her back in with warm packs and raised the temperature, yet again at 10AM on Sunday, she was at 33.8°C. That vet was not as specialized in exotics, so they called her main vet to see if they could get one of their exotics team in so we could transfer Izzy over and she can be taken care of.
We then transferred her over to her main vet where someone from the exotic team took over and she has been there since; being incubated at a higher temperature, given pain medication and subcutaneous fluids, as well as being checked on regularly over a 24 hour time span.
We checked in again this morning of Monday, where they said her temperature raised to over 34.5°C, but then dropped back down when the temperature was lowered just slightly in the incubator, which indicates she cannot hold her temperature on her own. They also said she may be suffering from liver failure which would indicate through the yellowness and lethargy.
The vet discussed with us later on in the day about her breathing becoming irregular and her condition getting no better, how sedation would be lethal for her at this point if we wanted to continue with the hysterectomy that could be causing her the pain. We asked if there is anything they could do about liver failure, but as she is at the point she is now, there is not. She deserves to rest instead of being poked and prodded with a bunch of tests that would just state the known about her having liver failure and possibly a cancerous tumour.
We’ll be driving down and saying goodbye to her as they will humanely euthanize her. I will give her wormies before as it’s her favourite treat in the whole world and have her favourite toys.
I love you Izzy, my sweet angel. 🦔❤️
r/Hedgehog • u/Striking_Magazine • 16h ago
Question so we rescued to hogs almost s week ago
how do we get them to warm up to us? does it take long? any useful information helps!
r/Hedgehog • u/Hamburger_fries_ • 1d ago
Question How to take a picture of my hedgy
My hedgehog (pebble) is a very active 13 weeks old hedgehog, he's pretty friendly and I obviously want to take a picture of him, but his energy outmatch mine and i can't even take a proper picture of him.
Do you guys have a trick to get a cute picture?
r/Hedgehog • u/infected_kiwi • 2d ago
SPLOOT! First sploot caught on camera
Biiiig stretch
r/Hedgehog • u/Hedgehog_booty • 2d ago
Discussion Don t desturb Kiko! Read the description
He is Kiko, he has like 5 months and i bought him from a petshop. He was very skinny and upset and it s “cage” was totaly a mess. I am really happy because i bought him and he looks happy now. He S pretty shy and angry sometimes but i hope we ll become friends 🥰❤️
r/Hedgehog • u/Imaginary_Macaron832 • 2d ago
Discussion miki trying a new foodd
i just bought miki a new food it is from kitchen flavour for beauty cat the blue one and i think it is safe to say she loving itt the kibble is much more smaller than her old one so she having much more easier time to chew it
r/Hedgehog • u/Frenchie143 • 1d ago
Question Dallas/Fort Worth area owners/volunteers need materials?
I had to say goodbye to our hedgehog after he got fast growing cancer last month. I have all of his materials: cage, liner, unopened food, blankets, wheels, hide huts, heat lamp, thermometer. Does anyone in the Dallas area need materials or know of a rescue/volunteer that does? I’d be happy to set them out for free or have you pick them up at my husbands office in Dallas.
r/Hedgehog • u/Anything-ThatWorks • 1d ago
Warning: Upsetting Content Question about progression rate of swelling from oral tumor
Long story short, around a month ago Poppy (who is nearly 7 and a half) started chewing a little strange and making a weird noise with her mouth that sounded like chewing kind of, but while her mouth was empty. After paying closer attention for a few days, I noticed there was a little bit of swelling starting on the upper part of her mouth/snout and I immediately suspected a tumor since that seems to be so common. I then took a video while she was drinking that gave a good view into her mouth, and I noticed a whiteish color mass behind her upper back tooth. This made me think it was possibly an abscess since she is getting old but that would actually be fixable, and I had a vet appointment scheduled at the next opening. The swelling got a bit worse before the vet, but it was nothing really that alarming. It was kind of hard to see into her mouth without sedating her and I didnt really want to do that just to look since she was so old, and from the videos he also agreed that it seemed likely to be an abscess from dental disease. So, we ended up scheduling a surgery to remove some teeth and drain the abscess and stuff since for that I figured the slight risks of sedating her would be worth it. However, after the surgery, it sadly did end up actually being a tumor so there wasn't really much that could be done that she would be able to handle. He removed a few of the nearby teeth and did what he could from the tumor, but other than that medicine doing whatever it can is the only real option left.
That was Friday morning. After the surgery, the swelling went down and she started looking normal from the outside, but you could still tell chewing was an issue. She was eating and drinking and walking around normally, which I was kind of surprised about, and even walked in her wheel for 10-15 seconds. However, last night (two and a half days after the surgery) the outside of her mouth/snout wasnt swelling at all like it was before, but her eye was bulging like 1/3 of the way out of her head and was surrounded by a red color, I guess either some trapped blood or her eyesocket. However surprisingly she could still close it, was still eating and drinking and acting mostly normal, and seemed to go to sleep and was doing good. This morning she woke up around her normal time, ate and drank like normal, but her eye was a little bit more bulging than last night I believe, closer to 40% maybe even 50% when she was chewing. I called the vet again just to double check and make sure there was nothing else we could do for this problem even though we couldnt do anything about the tumor, but sadly he said there wasnt really much to do about this either other than continuing the medicine and hope it helps with the swelling as much as it possibly can.
I don't want to put her down too early and question if she still had time left to enjoy in her life, but I also dont want to wait until her pain gets a lot worse or something even crazier than just her eye popping out or something happens and sit there feeling guilty for not doing it earlier. I was mostly just kind of wondering if anyone had been through anything similar and was able to talk about how quickly/slowly things happened to help me with the decision on when its eventually time. I know they hide their pain, but if shes still walking around and eating and drinking a good amount and on her own then I feel like it can't be time yet - and I obviously dont want to do it too soon. But her eye also seemed to go from perfectly normal to sticking 1/3 out of her head in like two hours, so I dont know if that means its just going to keep going super fast.
r/Hedgehog • u/_illbeyourmysterion_ • 2d ago
Question My hedgehogs acting atrang
This is just one video, and she was acting normal before hand. I took her out to hold her and let her run around and now that's shes back in her cage she's acting so weird. She's weirdly active and digging a lot, while pacing and going into herself. Not just that but she's being a big clumsy too? I'm so worried, but I don't know if it's me overthinking it.