In this article, we will be taking a look at what we consider to be 8 essential tips and tricks that all hedgehog owners should know, especially if they are new to keeping hedgehogs. You never know, these tips and tricks may help provide your hedgehog with some welcome changes in its life.
Bond With Your Hedgehog
Bonding with your hedgehog is an important activity and strengthens the relationship between the two of you. The trick is to tweak your bonding strategy to your hedgehog’s personality. Whereas some hedgehogs love to have you play with them and throw a ping-pong ball around for them, others will prefer to just snuggle on your chest and nap.
Spending time trying the two strategies is the only real way to know which one your hedgehog prefers. You never know, you may get lucky and have a hedgehog that enjoys both! One thing that we would like to mention is to never try and force your hedgehog to play, doing so can often do more harm than good.
The content linked below are some of our other articles that we feel may help you with this tip:-
- How To Make A Hedgehog Maze Quickly!
- How To Get A Hedgehog To Use His Wheel!
- How To Make A Hedgehog Exercise!
Hedgehog Proof Your Home
In our opinion, hedgehog proofing your home or at least one room is essential for allowing your hedgehog to run around and play freely. Not only does this minimize any potential risks to your hedgehog and give you peace of mind, it also helps block off any holes or gaps your hedgehog may try to climb into making it a nightmare to get it back out.
Your hedgehog may also do its business or leave food somewhere hidden making for a nasty surprise in the future. Hedgehog proofing a single room in your home is quick, cheap and easy and pays off in no time.
The content linked below are some of our other articles that we feel may help you with this tip:-
Feed Your Hedgehog Appropriately
Our ultimate hedgehog food list covers a massive number of different food types that your hedgehog both can and can’t eat so its always worth a read if you are new to keeping hedgehogs. A healthy diet for your hedgehog often leads to a happier hog as well as a healthier hog.
Optimising your hedgehog’s diet can be done quickly as well as cheaply making it an ideal change to help increase your hedgehog’s happiness while helping to support a healthy lifestyle for it. Some hedgehogs can by susceptible to quick weight fluctuations meaning they can easily end up either over or underweight by accident if you don’t track the food you offer them.
The content linked below are some of our other articles that we feel may help you with this tip:-
- The Ultimate Hedgehog Food List Guide!
- The Best Cat Food For Hedgehogs On The Market!
- How Do I Get My Hedgehog To Eat Mealworms?
- How Can I Get My Hedgehog To Eat And Check For Eating Issues!
- How To Make My Hedgehog Lose Weight!
- How To Make My Hedgehog Gain Weight!
Know Your Hedgehogs Habits
As we touched on earlier, some hedgehogs love to play whereas others will prefer to just snuggle up and nap on you. There are a large number of different situations similar to this where one hedgehog may prefer to do things one way and another will probably prefer to do things another.
Get to know your hedgehogs, their habits, their sleeping routines, and the way they prefer to play or interact with you. This can make both yours and your hedgehogs life much easier in the long run and avoid any panic visits to the local veterinarian for a suspected problem that may turn out to be completely normal behavior.
House Your Hedgehog Appropriately
Building an appropriate house for your hedgehog can sometimes be a costly task but this is usually down to the hedgehog owner rather than the hedgehog itself. Your hogs house can be as large and elaborate as you choose but just remember that the larger the house, the harder cleaning will be and the higher the budget required.
Offering your hedgehog some enrichment in its house is always adviced to give your hedgehog something to do when it is bored while you are at work during the day. A hedgehog wheel can be an excellent little addition to the cage and come highly recommended. Just be aware that some hedgehogs simply aren’t runners and may never use the wheel no matter what you try.
The content linked below are some of our other articles that we feel may help you with this tip:-
Provide Your Hedgehog With Darkness
As hedgehogs are primarily nocturnal creatures providing them with darkness in their cage is another quick and easy win for you when it comes to improving their life. This can be done by simply ordering a blackout curtain and putting it over your hedgehog’s house during some of the daylight hours.
This will create the illusion of nighttime and encourage your hedgehog to become more active. One trick you can do is put a number of small holes in the blackout curtain in an attempt to simulate the light of the moon so they are able to see what they are actually doing while playing.
Provide Regular Veterinary Care For Your Hedgehog
The vast majority of hedgehogs will be totally fine without ever going to the veterinarian. That said, many hog owners prefer to keep up to date with their vet’s checkups, mainly for peace of mind but also to try and get an early warning for any problems with their hedgehog. This can become costly though so always weigh up the pros and the cons.
Continue Educating Yourself About Hedgehogs
Always keep educating yourself when it comes to hedgehogs. In this day and age there really is no reason to stop as we have Google and YouTube at our fingertips with a world of information available through them. There are also some excellent hedgehog based forums available such as:-
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Hedgehog
- http://www.hedgehogcentral.com
- https://hedgehoghelp.co.uk/
- https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/
- http://www.hedgehogworld.com/forum
- http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com
We also have a number of articles available that go into detail on how best to take care of your pet hedgehog.
