Adopted 2 Hedgies

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Sparkle

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Its been a few years since I have owned hedgehogs, and back then I was a member of CnQ (upset bout all the info loss :( ) Anyway, I have adopted 2 Hedgehogs, we had an add on our local classifieds that said 2 hedgehogs, to good home. I emailed this person asking a few questions....none of which she had an answer for..( Age, sex, etc ) and then asked if it would be ok to come and see them. She told me these were free pets so no she does not want to be doing a show and tell....they are free either want them or not. I was like WOW. So I decided to go get them. They came with a smaller rabbit cage, inside there is a large igloo, and they also came with the food they are on, which is an actual hedgehog food....a pelleted form.

Shoudl I switch them over to cat food? What type's are reccomended these days?

As far as I can tell they are both female....they were quite squirmy when I tried to look so i figured i would give them a day to settle in and hopefully they will cooperate lol but im pretty sure they are both girls.

They both seem full grown, both look healthy.

They are on pine shavings.

I brought them home, and my fiance was like OMG you got a bunny..... *sigh* ( because of the rabbit cage) and so i played along and was like yea I did lol, he looked inside and nearly fell over with excitement lol " YOU GOT HEDGEHOGS?????OMG THATS SO COOL!! way cooler then a bunny!!" lol what a dork I know haha, my daughter is also excited about them and has been trying to name them (shes 5....and she just makes up names out of nothing) so this should be interesting lol

Anyway. I have a pretty big rabbit cage, 2ftx4ft that I would love to transfer them into to give them more room and be able to have some room for a wheel. What works for hedgehog "toys" ?

Sorry its been a while but I figured I know myself and would do everything to make sure I got caught up on all the right info ;)
 
Great for you for adopting the hedgies! The original owner clearly did not know much about hedgehogs and if they did, they did not apply any of it. Not knowing the age is one thing but to not know the gender? That's just WRONG!

Okay, so about the food... Definately switch them over to cat foood. Nancy put up an excellent article (written by Zalea) about the food recomendations, switching them over to a new food,etc. Some popular foods include-
-Blue Buffalo Spa Select Lite
-Chicken Suop for the Cat Lover's Soul
-Royal Canin.

Like I said, you will find a wider varity of foods in the article Nancy put up but these are some of the most popular. Though some people do still use it, I would recomend getting your hedgies off of the pine shavings because thay have beenknown to harver mites. Also, could you post a pic of the rabbit cage so that people could give there idea in how to make it more hedgie proof. Toys can be anything that doesn't have loose threads or pieces to choke on. My hedgie will completetly ignore any toy at all but a lot of hedgies enjoy things they can manipulate such as beanie babies, toy cars, baby toys, cat ball, etc.

I hope you post some pics of your two little girls!
 
On a hunt for my camera cord so I can upload pictures !!

They are absolutely darlings....not exactly the friendliest lil girls but thats something that can be worked on, and I dont blame them one bit! How rude the owner was bout me wanting to see them and stuff first but not being allowed to because this isnt a show and tell?? umm excuse me?

There is so much misinformation about hedgehogs here its rediculous. The 2 I had adopted 4 years ago, came froma couple who knowingly house a male and a female together in a shoe box sized wooden container and only fed them chopped up lunch meat! they were asking $200 for just the hedgehogs....and me having done a ton of research before I got them KNEW this wasnt good so I forked out the money so save them, and I had some amazing help from members of CnQ because the female ended up having 2 babies! talk about scary lol I wanted hedgehogs but I had absolutely no intention of breeding them OMG lol

Im glad these are 2 girls though, lol another boy and girl situation would drive me bonkers haha .

Welp...Off to find the camera cord :)
 
aww congrats on geting the two little girls, i cant wait to see pictures!!!
and i cant believe how rude the old owner was about you going to see them. lucky for the hedgies that they didint end up with another owner that dosint know what there doing, hopefully all goes well with them :cute:
 
Here are the girls. i couldnt find my camera cord so this is the picture of them that the previous owner had taken. The lighter one is a cinnicot ? the darker one i have no idea I never did get the whole coloring thing lol
 

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I'm so glad to hear these girls are in better hands... and that you're taking the time to properly care for them.

It looks like the other one is a regular salt and pepper.

I would also suggest getting them off those pine shavings as well... and using either Yesterday's news or Carefresh or liners.

Do they have wheels? I think that's the best toy for them...
 
Its actually aspen bedding, my mistake.

The other cage is just a regular rabbit cage...deep plastic bottom and powder coated ccage part ontop. It is nice and big. The cage they are in now is the same type of rabbit cage but alot smaller....basicly there is just enough room for a large igloo and the 2 food dishes... not exactly room to run around... this big cage there would be tons of room to put in a wheel ( which I dont have yet but am interested in these bucket wheels, or flying saucers ).

I just want to make them as comfortable as possible :) from the sounds of it they havent had the greatest life up till now. Both living together in that tiny cage since the other owner got them, little to no human interaction. ( cutting nails is going to be interesting )

We are totally inlove with them. But we need help figuring out some names ;) help us out!
 
I am so glad that the girls will now have a loving home and parents to provide them with everything that they need. I can't wait to see their sweet little faces when they are feeling more at home!
 
You said your 5 year old daughter wanted to name your girls? Well we asked my 1 year old sister (now 2) if she would like a hedgehog. We had no intention of her answering but appanretly she thought we were saying Hot Dog and ran over to the fridge screaming at the top of her lungs"HOT DOG!!!!!HOT DOG!!!!!!!!" It was hysterical and we thought it only right to name our hedgie Hot Dog! Just thought I'd share this story with you.
 
Haha Yea if we go with the names she picks they will be Leesh-la and chase-la LMAO I dont know where hse gets this stuff....those are the names of EVERYTHING she plays with and also what she named our fish LOL
 
Congrats on the hedgies! It sounds like they didn't come from a very good situation, but I'm glad that they are in good hands now. :)
 
Hey guys, just thought I would let ya all know I recieved a phone call from the previous owners friend ( where my 2 lil girls came from ) and asked if I wanted to take another...Where is the OMG smiley ??? I was a bit hesitant as well I had just adopted 2!! and I had just finnished completely spoiling them (wheels, "toys", another hidey house thingy :p) I even bought material to TRY to make a bag for them....that was a HUGE FAIL! haha oh wow I dont kwno how you guys do it!

Of course I caved and went and picked the THIRD!! hedgie up... and let me say HOLY CRAP!! this hedge hog is absolutely HUGE!! I have never seen such a big one, again they dont know the age, sex etc. So at the moment it is sitting in its very own cage, in a room seperat from my 2 others. I havent sexed this one yet as we got him very late lastnight, and talk about not impress this hedgie jsut wont stop hissing and popping, as soon as you even go in the room. Poor thing, I feel so bad for it.

Now like I said this hedgehog is HUGE! i'll get the camera out a bit later to show you. I have had hedgehogs before and the other 2 i have now are less then half the size of this one. Should I put him on a different food? I mean being this big is that healthy in the hedgie world?

Anyone have a few hedgie bags they could spare?? lol
 
As long as s/he doesn have fat rolls under the arms and can roll into a ball and is already on light cat food the diet can stay the same.

What is s/he on?



Not that the weight matters to determine if s/he is over weight but do you have a digital gram scale? If not you can get one from the post office or from a store like Target or Walmart.
 
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For food, I have my girls weaning onto innova low fat, they were on some petland "hedgehog food". This one they gave me a ziploc bag of the food they were feeding it and I kept asking what he was on and all they would say is cat food and popcorn! So I think then I should just put him on the innova low fat aswell?

I dont have a scale but can definatly pick one up!

Now do you think I should just let him be for a while before i got in there all flippin him over and scaring the crap out of him or should I do that as soon as possible? to find out the gender, and makes sure he looks ok on the underside and all ?
 
I personally would wait until later today.. But try to get him/her out to see if everything looks ok. Start by putting your hand in the cage and letting him/her sniff around if s/he seems ok with that and not stressed talk him/her out and put him/her on your lap with a blanket over him/her and let him/her take in your scent and explore around and learn that you are safe.

Have you started bonding shirts or blankets for them? So when you are gone they can still take in your scent.
 
Yes I sure have :) the girls are doign really well, though still very shy they are able to now stay out of the igloo when I walk into the room lol the one sometimes runs back to the igloo and kinda wear it like a hedgie hat to go to the food dishes lol a very large plastic hedgie hat haha

The new hedgie is extremly frightened, s/he will just stay under my shirt, so ill go in and talk softly to him, and he will just start hissing none stop even for like 5 minutes after i have left the room, he is so afraid! The one time he was out from under the shirt, and i came in he didnt waste any time.....half balling i guess you would call it? not completely balled up but hiding his head and popping liek crazy.

I feel so bad for s/he! and I wish i could stop calling it s/he LOL

Im just glad he came here instead of being passed on from home to home though, being neglected and not being that "fun neat pet" some kid thought it would be.
 
Poor baby. Always hate when you see ones like that, it's sad. Good luck with them all. Have you tried worms on him/her? They usually make good bribes.
 
Well I have checked all 3 three of them over very well, and I must say WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!!! omg, the 2 girls need a nail clipping so bad the nails are all curled under the toes pretty much. The huge hedgie, is a very big BOY. and now i thought the girls nails were long omg....his nails are absolutely disgusting they are rediculously long and curled under aswell.... not just a little long... I feel so bad for them all. definatly toe clipping time...geez I wonder if they will remember how to walk normally after having walked on curled toe nails for ever!
 
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