African Pygmy Hedgehogs

Does anyone have one of these? I used to have a trio of them years ago that were the funniest things to watch. You've gotta love an animal that gives itself a bath in its own saliva after eating multi-colored pellets--especially if they're albino.

I had to send mine back to the breeder after the whole monkey pox thing hit Wisconsin.

My wife wants one, but we are unsure what kind of pet they will make. She wants a pet that she can play with that is interested in playing back and shows affection. Do hedgehogs show affection?

I don't know if I would exactly call it "affection", but they did lick hands and crawl around all curious like when they were handled. I had heard from a few other people that they had been bit by theirs, but I thought that was pretty odd. Their teeth are more like an opossum's, so I doubt it would hurt even if they did bite.

In my opinion, their only downside was the odor. Their feces were more similar to feline or ferret poop which smells like... well, you know. Mine quickly learned to only "go" in one corner of the cage though, which made cleaning pretty easy. If you feed them just hedgehog food, their poop didn't smell too bad at all, but when I gave them treats (superworms, crickets--funny as heck) that was when they smelled. Still not as bad as a hamster though.

I had all three of mine in a SuperPet Rabbit cage that was 30Lx30Wx24?H and had ramps and a wheel in there for them. I didn't think they'd be much for climbing, but they were a lot more "arboreal" than I would have guessed.

The spines are sharp (obviously) but once you learn how to pick them up and they get used to you, it's easy to forget that they even have the spines. Even if they balled up, I would still just "scoop" them up. I found that dropping a little bit of water from their water bottle on their bellies while they were balled up would make them un-roll and start crawling around.

Honestly, I think they would make a better pet in many situations than a guinea pig or rabbit. Even though they're mostly nocturnal, they don't squeal and grunt like a guinea pig, and don't thump around like a rabbit so they're pretty quite at night. Just don't forget to oil their wheel once in a while

Anyway, that's all I can really think of right now.

We have several hedgehogs, and most of them are great pets. When I sit down to watch TV, I almost always have a hedgehog or 2 that I am "playing" with. If you are looking for a pet that will play tug of war or fetch, like a cat or dog, then you will be disappointed with a hedgehog. However, they play in their own way. They will walk around and sniff and lick your fingers. It is fascinating and somewhat odd to watch them "anoint" themselves with saliva when they smell a new scent. Some of them will take treats out of your fingers. Mine will often burrow into my arms and sleep.

One thing we have learned is that you should be picky about the personality of the hedgehog when you buy it. If the animal readily opens up in your hands and crawls around, it will usually make a great pet. However, if it hisses and refuses to open up, I would recommend that you keep looking. Even in a stressful environment, most friendly hedgehogs will come out of their ball at least briefly. Although we have turned some around, most of the time the hissy ones are not as friendly.

If you have questions about hedgehogs, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks for the replies. I will have to get my wife to read this and make up her list of questions!!!