Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Exotic Pet Hedgehogs

Many people hear about Hedgehogs being kept as exotic pets and wonder about this.  Hedgehogs live wild in the UK and New Zealand, but indeed this is not the only place these spiky little insectivores are from.  There are other species in Africa, and the common pet Hedgehog is typically an African hybrid species, the African Pygmy Hedgehog.

While most areas do not allow capture of wild hedgehogs, keeping a pet African Pygmy Hedgehog may be allowed.

Hedgehogs are sometimes fed cat food but do best on a proper Hedgehog food with meat as a main ingredient (not corn). They can have dried crickets or mealworms as treats.

Probably the biggest issue with keeping a pet Hedgehog, other than laws allowing them, is the fact that they are nocturnal - meaning they are active at night when their owners are trying to sleep.  As well if they get too cold they may try to hibernate and will often die, as this is not natural.  A pet Hedgehog should be taken out of its cage nightly for at least 2 hours. 

Of course, as with any pet, exotic pets like Hedgehogs, are best to be purchased from a breeder, or adopted from an animal shelter, and never bought at a pet store.

8 week old Hedgehog.


This is not a complete guide to Hedgehog care, one should do more research before getting an exotic pet Hedgehog.  Hedgehog Central is a great source of information, and even has a list of breeders.


I will also share with you a link written by my husband with information we gathered, it should be considered a good introductory guide to Pet Hedgehogs, click here.

9 comments:

  1. nice post.i like these type of post which are comprehensive but short.you need to add little bit more knowledge in this post
    pets or dog

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  2. Nice photo! It is so cute. I want to see that in person. Nice articles. Can post more cute photos of animals?

    -Peter, Sydney Group Dining
    http://www.morethemerrier.com.au

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. Just look at them. They are so cute. If I didn't have any bad experience with rhodent animals, I might be loved to keep them. I don't know if they belong to rhodent or not, but their face is just almost the same. Anyway, thanks for sharing this great info.

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  5. this animal is so cute and I love it, thank you!
    adiphene

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  6. I have a passion for exotic pets and animals and was unhappy with many of the websites listing these exotic pets for sale. I just did not think they were doing a very good job. I found them disorganized, incomplete and generally not very user friendly. So, I have set out to create a better experience and am building a free classified ads site where people can list their exotic pets for sale (http://exoticpetshq.com) or post wanted ads seeking specific exotic animals for purchase.

    My site, called Exotic Pets Headquarters, is just being launched and I am aggressively marketing it as we speak. I would greatly appreciate it if you would perhaps do a future blog post so that we can build traffic.

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  7. There is much information that needs to be understood if you're a new hedgehog parent. They each have their own personalities and some may have special needs. Hedgehogs have only been popular as pets since the 1990's, so there is much that is unknown and being updated regularly as they become more mainstream. We share a variety of topics dedicated solely to the care of hedgehogs as pets on our website. https://heavenlyhedgies.com

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  8. So cute, thanks for the article. Visit my blog Animal Good News

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