Hedgehogs are cute, kind animals, and people have long kept hedgehogs as pets.
If you decide to get a hedgehog in a flat, it’s best to buy one from a nearest pets at home with a veterinary health certificate. Hedgehogs can have rabies, so it’s best not to get a wild animal. They may also be infected with helminths and other illnesses dangerous to humans.
Keeping a hedgehog
✔ Place the hedgehog in a spacious cage so that it has room for a litter tray and a bowl.
✔ Hang a special drinker in the corner. In time he will get used to drinking from it and the cage will not get wet from an overturned water bowl.
✔ A regular cat litter can eliminate the unpleasant smell. Sprinkle it on the bottom of the cage and in the litter tray. Some hedgehogs are even trained to go there! You can put straw or dry grass on top of the litter.
✔ Clean the cage once or twice a week, as he may be stressed by frequent intrusions into his personal space.
✔ If he is frightened, do not try to play with him. He may bite you, children and other pets.
✔ The prickly little monkeys like to run around if you let them out of their cage. However, it takes a long time to find the nocturnal inhabitant. They will hide during the day and wake you up at night with their loud stomping. By the way, hedgehogs have very sharp claws! It is advisable to have them trimmed, otherwise the hedgehog can damage the flooring of the flat.
Nutrition
Feed your pet hedgehog during daylight hours in order to change the hedgehog’s nocturnal lifestyle. Do you know why, in fairy tales and cartoons, hedgehogs carry apples and mushrooms on their backs? Many people think that they eat them. They don’t! Hedgehogs prefer to roll around in the grass under various trees to get rid of parasites, and sometimes the apples lying on the ground get stuck on their own needles.
But in fact, hedgehogs are predators. They feed on bugs, midges, worms and even rodents. At home, their diet consists of chicken, beef and fish in raw and cooked form.
It is better to scald the meat to make a mince and then mix it with boiled rice or buckwheat.
They are also very fond of dairy products: milk, cottage cheese, ryazhenka, kefir.
Insects are a real delicacy for hedgehogs. They adore crickets, Madagascar cockroaches and mealworms. Insectivorous bird food mixed with raw eggs is also good for them, since it is a healthy mix for a prickly pet and they will also like it.
Small amounts of fruit and vegetables, freshly squeezed juice or a vitamin mixture of fresh carrots with egg powder and crushed crumbs may also be added. An adult hedgehog is fed twice a day.
Hedgehogs live 8-10 years at home.
There are different types of hedgehogs: the common (European), African (white-bellied), long-eared, long-eared and even bald.
If you provide the hedgehog with comfortable living conditions, healthy and tasty food, as well as attention, a prickly and cute little friend will live in your flat, who will please you and give you a lot of positive emotions.