Very cute, very timid and NOT for children (African Pygmy Hedgehog)

Member Name: MissTierney

Product:	African Pygmy Hedgehog
Date:	11/07/09 (541 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cute, adorable, you dont feel guilty being out in the daytime while they are asleep!

Disadvantages: Pet shops

I would like to start off by saying
"please do your research on african pygmy hedgehogs before you decide to buy one"
and
"Buy from a breeder rather than a pet shop"
This is very very important if you are concerned about your pets health and behaviour.
I will go in to detail about this later in my post.

What are they?
I first found out about African Pygmy hedgehogs (APH) through an online article sent to me by a friend.
They are a hybrid of two other sorts of hedgehog, (i forget the names but its not that relevant) and are a relatively new domesticated house pet.
They live to about 4-7 years.
They grow up to around 8 inches long at most. (about the size of a large hamster)
I think they have been on the UK pet scene for around just over a decade. Compared to the syrian hamster which has been around about 40 years.
Pygmy hedgehogs are similar to hamsters in the way that they behave, and how they are are housed and looked after to a certain extent.
I would NOT recommend a hedgehog as a pet for a child. They may look cute, but hamsters are much more sociable and used to human interaction.
Pygmy hedgehogs are timid and take a lot of patience and careful handling.

How much? Where can i get them?
You can expect to pay £100 - £200 for an APH, the price being kept high so that people are less likely to impulse buy, or be bought at a whim or as presents for children.
The breeder should be registered and so should her/his animals. This is a way to lessen inbreeding which causes genetic problems for them and their offspring.
Often, pet stores are not properly trained to care for specialist creatures like APH's. They are bought in a litter, and can be left in overcrowded, far too small tanks, and left to pro-create between themselves, producing in-bred babies.
Being timmid creatures, a pet shop is not an ideal place for an APH to be - lots of people passing, prodding and scaring them. They have very bad sight so the slightest of noises or movement can make them puff up into a ball and hiss in fear.
Constant fear or neglect can cause an APH to be anti-social for the rest of their lives so if you buy from a pet store i would get a good exotic pet insurance policy and prepare to have a battle on your hands for months/years at bringing him/her around to be a little more sociable with you.
There are quite a few breeders around so there is no excuse to buy from a pet store. It will be worth travelling more of a distance to choose a breeder.
I travelled very far away from home to get my APH. A breeder in North Yorkshire who is registered and so are her APH's.
A google search on APH breeders will give you enough contact addresses/e-mails to start with.

How do i look after them?
FOOD;
They are fed on a basic diet of dry cat food - good brands are worth the buy as being little creatures they dont eat a lot so it still equates to value for money.
For treats, hedgies love mealworms! Live is always best, but if you cant handle the wriggling then dried ones are fine too. You can give them crickets too.
It is NOT advised to give them wild insects from the garden.
Hedgies are very prone to weight gain so try not to treat them too much - 3/4 times a week is fine. They like cooked chicken too and are said to like cooked egg, vegetables and fruit - but my hedgie wont touch any of it. Feel free to experiment but look it up before you try as they are allergic to certain foods, such as grape, milk, and unprocessed dairy products.

LIVING;
Temperature should be above 21 degrees, If you are comfortable in a t-shirt, that should be fine. If the temperature goes too low, they will attempt to hibernate which will cause death. If this happens, the best idea is to put them under your top on your belly so that they slowly heat up with your body heat. Do not attempt to heat them up too quickly using hot water or heat pads or anything else as it will shock their system.
Hedgies need a very large living space - they are extremely active during late night hours so they really need the space. You can get a zoozone 2 for around £50 i think, which is 100cm by about 50 cm. Any smaller would not be sufficient.
A large tank is also fine, as long as there are air vents.
Normal wire cages are not very good as although hedgies climb, they have poor eyesight and will fall at some point and this of course can cause injury, especially to a hedgie who can not see how high they are!
A wheel is compulsory, they are so active and can run miles and miles in a one night jog! A large bucket wheel is ideal for hedgies as they have long skinny legs/feet which can get trapped in the wire wheels - which can break their legs or rip their nails and make them bleed :(
Do NOT use cedar wood or any other oil coated woods. They are allergic and it will cause respiratory problems. Pine is supposed to be ok but im not sure - look it up. Aspen wood chippings are the best but you can also use plain old newspaper to line the cage, then shredded news paper for in their house to use as bedding.
I also put an old tshirt in there so that she is used to my smell and she seems to like sleeping under it! Be careful that there are no frays as they can end up wrapped around limbs causing amputation!
A water bottle is fine as long as you also leave a bowl of water as they more often than not will not even think to go to the bottle.
I put her wheel in the litter tray because she poo's ALOT and ALWAYS on her wheel!! It is much more manageable to keep it all to one section. I use dust-free, clump-free cat litter.
Hedgies like cat balls, teddies, tubes (as you will see on youtube home vids!) but you must make sure that the tubes in their cage are cut long-ways, especially whist not under supervision, as they do stick their heads in and get stuck! :)

BEHAVIOUR
This can range across the board but my hedgie was lucky enough to have had a breeder who regularly held her and interacted with her.
If a hedgie is scared their quills will rise and they will pull their "eyebrows" forward so that they look like a small prickly rug. If they are even more scared they will completely ball up so it is very hard to tell where her crease is. Sometimes they will hiss at you and shake if they are really scared, and some have been known to bite. If they do bite - it hurts! I havent been at the receiving end yet - but from what people say its pretty bad as they clamp down and wont release. The best way to make them release (apparently) is to actually slowly push into the hedgehog instead of pull away. You should try and expose their neck so that they instinctively let go to protect themselves. Other prone times for biting is when you have not washed your hand after eating or having some food on your fingers. They just think you are food :)
My hedgie does get startled when i take her out while she has been sleeping and she puffs up into a very sharp prickly ball! After around 30 secs max she'll stick her nose out and as long as you dont make sudden movements she will wriggle around and eat mealworms from you.
I find it so funny when she gets scared of silly things, like the other day i was watching her running around and she knocked her catball (with a bell in) she immediately puffed up and started hissing! Then slowly uncurled to look at the object then scuttled off!
They are such loveable little creatures, timid but curious, and very very cute.
I would recommend to any animal lover with lots of time in the night hours and lots of patience to get their hedgie to know them and likewise.

I will update if i can think of anything else.

Summary: Unique pet