Hedgehogs: The Essential Guide to Ownership & Care for Your Pet

by Kate H. Pellham

From the weather predictors of the Roman Empire to the croquet balls in Alice in Wonderland, hedgehogs have captivated our imaginations throughout history. Yet as pets, hedgehogs have only become popular in the last few decades—which is a shame, considering how playful and affectionate they can be. Hedgehogs are hearty and low-maintenance pets. As their popularity in the pet trade has increased so, too, has the available knowledge about the animal, and today it’s easier than ever to keep a pet hedgehog happy and healthy.

A hedgehog can fit into almost any lifestyle. Whether you need a furry friend to make your apartment feel less lonely or you’re a family with cats and dogs that wants to add something new, the hedgehog will quickly burrow its way into your heart. In this book, you’ll learn what kind of cage you need to buy, how to socialize the animal to your touch, and how to monitor its interactions with other pets, as well as all the basics of food, cleaning, and handling you’ll need to know to keep your hedgehog healthier longer.

Hedgehogs are active and inquisitive creatures, and having one as a pet means having tons of play time to look forward to. This book will show you how to keep up with the animal’s high exercise demands, and how to assess and work with your individual hedgehog’s unique personality. You’ll learn which toys and treats they especially love, what things to avoid, and how to co-ordinate a nocturnal animal’s ideal schedule with your day to day activities.

With their quilled backs and unique behaviors, it’s easy to see why people think of hedgehogs as an exotic pet. This book will help make the exotic familiar, allowing you to add a touch of the wild to your own home.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2015

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I am someone who has had few pets over the course of my life, I do have a fondness in thinking about odd and quirky pets, and the hedgehog is certainly an example of a strange sort of pet that would likely be fascinating to have and that would have a schedule even more nocturnal than my own. One of the strange quirks about the advice in this book is that the author recommends that a hedgehog be kept in a quiet room that nonetheless has people in it during the day but is not a room that people are in at night when hedgehogs are at their most active, since there are apparently no quiet hedgehog wheels where the little animals can get their exercise and somehow hedgehogs benefit from being around people even when they are simply sleeping near human beings and thus getting used to their presence and appreciating them around as safe beings. By and large, hedgies appear to be somewhat fussy and temperamental animals who cannot be transported easily and who have a narrow temperature range and rather strict food and exercise requirements.

This book is about 150 pages long and is divided into five chapters. After a disclaimer, a rather odd beginning for a book like this one, the book begins with a chapter that introduces hedgehogs as animals, as pets, their behavior and various other concerns as well as how one can buy them and what age one would want them to be (1). This is followed by a discussion of cages and supplies, with a note that guinea pig cages are the right size but that other cages would have to be modified based on the size of hedgehogs (2), as well as various other items one would want in a cage like liner, bedding, night bulbs, exercise wheels, a hide box, and so on. This is followed by a discussion of feeding and handling, including socializing one's hedgehog, dealing with food and nutrition, weekly and monthly tasks, daily play and exercise, and toys (3). After that the author talks about health and wellness for hedgehogs including hibernation and aestivation, parasites and fungus, quilling, dry skin, gastro-intestinal issues, and other potential issues that might end up in trips to the vet (4). Finally, the author closes with a chapter on breeding and showing hedgehogs (5), as well as additional resources and the difficulties of raising hoglets.

In light of what this book has to say about the general fussiness of hedgehogs as pets and the fact that few pet stores have supplies that are specifically focused on them as animals, it is remarkable that books exists which encourage elementary school age children to prepare for the task of owning and taking care of hedgies. Given the fact that one has to watch out for purchasing pregnant juvenile hedgehogs and worrying about not putting males in cages with other hedgehogs and in finding the right kind of cage and wheel for hedgehogs and making sure they eat enough protein but not too much fat so as to avoid being overweight and sick, hedgehogs are animals that require a lot of very delicate and very precise care in choosing their kibbles and in making sure they have enough area to run around in but not anything that will injure them or allow them to make a bid for freedom. This is a bit too much for a young person to deal with, I would think, and probably more than most adults would want to handle in a small animal of dubious legality in many areas.

[Darrin Buxman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Advice for New Hedgehog Owners

I inherited Rocky when my son's girlfriend got a job in California, which bans hedgehogs, along with other cool things. Having no experience aside from a farm background I found this book to be well written and informative. Rocky seems happier although he misses his owner and I'm more comfortable with him. Hedgehogs are a blast.

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction

This seems a very comprehensive book for anyone contemplating on getting a hedgehog. It is written for a US market but its not hard to fill in the gaps with the help of Google.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

very informative

this was helpful in my research of hedgehogs and the life they need and care. I blueberries research is still needed