THE RESIDENTIAL PAGE

MAKING a HEDGEHOG FEEL at HOME SAFELY

by

LITTLE FLASH

In modern captivity, where and how do hedgehogs prefer to live?  In the "wilderness" (of which there is precious little left), I s'pose we aren't called "hedgehogs" for nothing.  Hogging out in the hedges or the hedgerows.  If any of you have seen the hedgerows of western Europe, you know what an impenetrable barrier a hedgerow can be (and an ideal hideout for the likes of us).  In a hedgerow we can burrow away to our heart's content and be safe from all sorts of predators, two legged, four legged, and the big editions of those with feathers.  So we like a private place to hide out comfortably, not unlike a human city dweller with six different kinds of locks on the apartment door.

We hedgehogs held captive in North America were all born here, in captivity.  Almost all of our ancestors came from northern Nigeria, western Benin, and southern Niger, all African countries near the Equator.  The roundup of our ancestors began in the human year 1991.  These wild populations of hedgehogs were, as we are told, overpopulating in their native lands and many were starving.  They were gathered up and sold at the Nigerian port city of Lagos and flown on Air Nigeria to New York City and to Miami, where they were sold into the wholesale pet trade.  Human exporters say that about 80,000 of our ancestors arrived in the "New World" that way, from 1991 until 1994.  In 1994, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) stopped live animal imports from African countries due to the possibility of the importation of animal-borne diseases (which really had nothing to do with us hedgehogs).  As long as immigrant hedgehogs arrived from Nigeria, there was no money to be made by humans in breeding hedgehogs in north America.  All of that changed in 1994 when the immigration doors closed - but that is another story.

So how do we like "captivity?"  Could be worse.  Most of us are very much creatures of habit, so we get comfortable with familiar surroundings.  It is said that in the wild our brethren only live an average of two years, due to having to deal with sharp changes in weather, a lack of food sources, fatal illnesses,  predators, and the modern bane of the hedgehog - the motorized vehicle.  So, if length of life here on earth is considered "good," I guess we have it better than our wild cousins. 

Although creatures of habit, most of us are endlessly curious.  We like to root around and explore new places - at least for a time before heading home.  Sometimes this gets us in trouble in a modern captive environment.  Because we are insectivores and not rodents, there is a major difference between us and our rodent buddies - unlike rodents, our teeth do not grow continuously.  Rodents must be constantly gnawing on stuff to keep their ever-growing teeth under control.  With us, our teeth stay put.  Running around the house, therefore, is a little less dicey than if, say, we were a rat or a beaver.  For them, their need to gnaw all the time might get them electrocuted or executed by irate humans.  With us, we just root around exploring every inch of the terrain.  Now every once in a while that indoor free-range exploration gets us in trouble.  There have been tales of some of the more adventurous of us getting up inside of clothes washers, refrigerators (where there are gears and pulleys) or into the back of kitchen cabinets where there is no room to turn around or get out.  Our human caretakers have developed a term for preventing this sort of exploratory mishap - they call it "hedgieproofing a room."

Outdoor life for the captive African hedgehog in North America can be fun but, as with anything else, has its dangers.  The obvious dangers, such as predators, means that hedgehogs should never by left outdoors by themselves lest they be assaulted from the ground (dogs, foxes, etc.) or the air (eagles, owls, hawks).  They can also take off (you'd be very surprised at how hast a hedgehog can run when she puts her mind to it) and fall into outdoor hazards (pits and pools), zip under fences, or even run out into traffic.  Then there are unseen hazards, such as residual chemicals (insecticides, herbicides, etc.) and the insects that may have dined on these chemicals.  One of the major health problems for European wild hedgehogs is eating slugs who have ingested these poisons.

MODERN CONDO LIFE

Aside from indoor and outdoor free-ranging, what sort of captive environment is acceptable to us?  Well, we'd like some room to get around, hide out, and get some exercise.  Modern humans have become fairly comfortable with modest apartments, I guess that's the same with us.  Where in the wild our foraging for food and romance (not necessarily in that order) provided all the exercise we needed, in modern day captivity, a good exercise wheel (with the necessary solid or small mesh running surface) is enjoyed by most of us and is not unlike the exercise machines modern humans use at so-called "health clubs."  We do not do very well on those exercise wheels with rungs that are designed for rodents, for we are nowhere near as sure footed as they and we can easily break a leg trying to negotiate one of those things.

ON THE FLOOR - BEDDING

Many of our human caretakers provide "bedding" for us, which may be anything from ground up or chipped wood (cedar, pine, aspen), to recycled newspaper products, to shredded newspaper, to other particulate materials such as "corncob" or other things.  These sort of materials seem to satisfy our burrowing nature, but many of these materials have dangers - and some are downright potentially fatal.  Cedar, although its fragrance is pleasant to many humans, contains aromatic chemicals that may cause illness and death for hedgehogs.  Some forms of pine bedding are also toxic to us.  Although there are many who would argue that other forms of particulate are harmless and/or are even preferred by us, here at our Rescue, we are hearing none of that.  Here we use no particulate bedding as described above for several reasons that we think are sound:

1.  Some particulate bedding, such as cedar and some types of pine, are toxic to us (see above).

2.  Particulate bedding, particularly from wood products (for example, aspen tends to have long, thin slivers) may become impaled or imbedded in private parts (especially males), ears, eyes, noses, or mouths, causing injuries and/or infections.

3.  Regardless of the manufacturing process, particulate bedding continually produces dust which may affect upper respiratory areas and cause breathing difficulties.

4.  Despite an even sterile manufacturing process and a very clean store where it is purchased, where particulate bedding is stored in transit, such as in trucks and warehouses, subjects these materials to invasion by such things as mites, which may cause serious health problems for us.

5.  Although particulate bedding may present a more aesthetic appearance to humans due to the lack of having to look at deposits of poop and pee (doesn't bother us in the least), there is a definite downside to poop/pee camouflage.  Our lives, compared to human longevity here on this earth, are sped up by about 12 to one.  So, when we become ill, our illnesses tend to progress about 12 times faster than the average human.  In a hedgehog, some of the very best ways to spot when something is wrong in the health department are rapid changes in weight, off color urine, and poop that is not "normal."  In the poop department that means poop that is runny, gelatinous, any shade of green, black and tarry, very pale, or bloody.  With particulate bedding, these poop/pee observations are seriously obscured.

6.  Particulate bedding is messy and adheres to just about everything.

7.  Particulate bedding is non-recyclable and must be discarded.  It takes up storage space as well.

8.  Particulate bedding is expensive for the bedding itself and for the time and gasoline it takes to go and get it.

So, what is an acceptable alternative to particulate bedding?  Here we use exclusively textiles:  Triple layer cage liners (corduroy on the outside with a fleece core - water absorbent but not waterproof), small fleece blankets, hedgiebags (a textile pocket that a hedgehog can hide in), pigloos (a small plastic igloo-like house), and hollowed out half logs.  The cages liners can be made by someone skilled in sewing or can be purchased from several makers via the Internet.  Our liners are made by Sherry Songhurst and her friends and can be seen on her website at http://www.pinsneedles.com

Of course, setting up an acceptable hedgehog "condo" is important for their emotional and physical well being, but permitting regular "free range" exploration time is important, too.  Just be sure that the free range place is safe.  I remember that whenever our human caretaker forgot to put an exercise wheel in our condo (imagine that!), one of my roommates, Angel, would just resolve to escape and go find herself a wheel.  At that time seven of us lived together in what the humans called a "bathroom."  There was a "kiddie gate" at the door to keep us inside.  Well, that kiddie gate did not phase Angel in the least and it was amazing to see her go straight up the thing and over the top.  Quite a feat, when you think of it, since none of us have opposable thumbs.  She'd forage around and find a wheel and run on it to her heart's content.  However, when she got tired, she would do a very dangerous thing.  She would crawl up inside of a queen sized hide-a-bed sofa and sack out!  The first time that happened, our caretaker searched for her high and low.  He finally opened up the hide-a-bed and Angel unceremoniously fell out onto the carpet none the worse for wear.  Fortunately, she hid in a place where the moving machinery of the hide-a-bed did not crush her to death or seriously injure her.

TEMPERATURE is CRUCIAL

Environmental TEMPERATURE!  The immigrant hedgehogs that arrived on North American shores were of the two species of hedgehogs that have traditionally lived close to the Equator in Africa.  Well, so what?  Seems that over 20 million years of living near the Equator, we lost our ability to generate and retain the different kind of body fat (called "brown fat") needed to hibernate through the winter.  So, immigrating to North America - which, for those of you that are geographically challenged, is a long way from the Equator - placed us at great risk of dying from exposure to low temperatures.  To maintain our health and keep us from trying to hibernate (which we will unsuccessfully try to do if it gets too cold), we need an environmental temperature kept at 72 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.  Here at the Rescue, the Hedgiehouse temperature is kept at 74 to 76 degrees, and it is usually 78 degrees in the Dispensary.  Since the Hedgiehouse is a detached building, all sorts of alarms are set to go off in the main building if the Hedgiehouse temperature falls below 68 degrees.  Because of the importance of a warm temperature for our health, caretakers need to have emergency plans in case of a power outage or some other cause of a loss of environmental warmth.  Here, our contingency plan calls for the use of motor vehicles and small emergency clear plastic containers (with air holes!) to temporarily house us in a compact space in one of the cars or the Rescue truck, until power (and heat) is restored.  Of course, this plan will not work if the motor vehicles do not have enough fuel to run for a long time, especially if we are snowed in!  We got to test out this plan when we were evacuated as the Hayman Wildfire was closing in on us, as we had to "get out of Dodge" in the middle of the night (even though it was June, temperatures were in the low 40s here at 9,500 feet elevation). 

THE FOOD BOWL

Around here we're pretty particular about food bowls.  We're not convinced that countries permitting their workers to be paid starvation wages would suddenly become conscientious when it came to selecting materials and processes for animal food bowls.  It seems to me that in those situations, cheap pottery firing processes and mass production just may result in the leaching of toxic heavy metals from the bowl into our food and water.  We already have enough problems with such maladies as cancer and multiple sclerosis without having to worry about lead poisoning too.  Since most of us weigh just about one pound, it does not take a lot of lead or other heavy metal to get us sick!  SO!  Here at the Rescue we use only good old reliable Pyrex food dishes and smaller specialty dishes made only in countries that have high standards for production. 

We use two types of standard Pyrex food bowls, the eight ounce clear oval number 328 and the ten ounce "milk glass" white oval number 700.  The model 700 usually has a colored outside surface.  The eight ounce bowls are used for condos housing single hedgehogs and the ten ounce bowls used for colonies of two hedgehogs or more.  Lower profile specialty dishes are used in special situations where a hedgehog is disabled but still able to eat on her/his own.  Below is a photo of all three bowls.

The Pyrex food bowls, in addition to being safe from leaching chemicals, have a few other advantages, too.  They are generally too small afford a hedgehog the opportunity to "hog" the bowl of food by laying in it (although occasionally one will try).  The low, oval shape discourages tipping or upset.  Now for the downside (there always IS a downside).  Pyrex does not make these bowls any more.  They quit making them back around 1999 or so, right when we were deciding to use them (ain't it always the way).  So, once we found that out, we went running around buying up all we could from ever-depleting shelf stocks.  When we could not find any more in supermarkets, we hit Corningware stores in  outlet malls.  But then those stocks dried up.  But, hope is not lost.  They are usually available on eBay - just type in "Pyrex oval" and there are usually some on sale there (but watch out for high postage charges!).

THE WATER SOURCE

We have been experimenting around with water sources for hedgehogs now for over nine years.  We've settled on something that works very well for us - the PetMate 2.8 liter gravity feed waterer.  We discounted using water bottles at the outset, for several reasons.  Besides the fact that hedgehogs do not use water bottles in nature, it is difficult to get water from these water bottle tubes.  Also, if a water bottle dispensing metal tube becomes dysfunctional, the struggle to get water when none will be forthcoming can cause mouth injury or a broken tooth or two.  Of course, the bottles were designed for rodents, so to them a broken tooth is not a real big problem, since their teeth continue to grow (hence their need to constantly gnaw).  However, we insectivores do not have constantly growing teeth, so once one of our teeth is gone - it's gone for good.

We have tried water bowls (same Pyrex dishes we use for food, above) but they were easily contaminated with food or poop and easily spilled.  Then we discovered the gravity feed waterer, and we experimented with several of those, including the ones for small lizards (tipped over too easily - hedgehogs are not as dainty as small lizards) and the plastic adapters for Mason jars.  We think the Mason jar adaptor thingy might work if they made one for a wide mouth Mason jar, but the Mason jar rig is too unstable using the narrow mouth adaptors.  We finally settled on the PetMate 2.8 liter gravity feed waterer pictured below:

The waterer has a 10" long by 6.3" wide footprint and is nine inches tall.  To avoid contamination of the water, we always place the waterer in a corner of the condo so only one side is available to the hedgehog for drinking (but still, some hedgehogs manage to deposit food and/or poop in the water.  The waterers are sold with four different base colors (the water tanks are all opaque white) - light gray ("granite")(pictured above), tan ("speckled dove"), dark purple, and dark blue ("planet blue").  I think the purple and gray ones have been discontinued.  It is important to specify one of the lighter colors (gray or tan) because the darker colors hide contamination.  Our rescue caretaker (Standing Bear) called the manufacturer (Doskocil, Inc.) to ask why they even made the dark colored bases and he was told that it was a "marketing" decision.  Go figure. 

The waterers can occasionally be found in chain stores like PetsMart and Petco, but usually they are the items with the dark colored bases for about $8.00.  We have found that the best place to buy them is on the Internet at Revival Animal Health - http://www.revivalanimal.com.  At their web site just type "waterer" in the dialog box or enter their stock number 40-073.  The cost is very reasonable at $4.49 each.  I would recommend ordering in person using their toll free number and specifying the tan ("speckled dove") base, since they have both the light and dark colored bases in stock.

We only fill the waterer about 1/3d full because the waterers will be changed out before a hedgehog can drink all of the water in it and 1/3d full provides enough weight so that the waterer cannot be tipped over.  Over time, the inside of the water reservoir may become contaminated with various things, depending upon the water and the environment.  In warmer climates, algae may form.  Here we have a little iron in our water and so over time a ferrous (brown) precipitate forms on the inside of the waterer tank.  This is easily cleaned by storing the waterer tank filled with white vinegar for several days (those of you with one hedgehog would need a minimum of two waterers - here we have about fifty of them).

Pictured below is a disabled hedgehog drinking from his waterer.  Also in the photo he has spread around his Select Diet food on the liner and a low profile bowl of soft food is to the left (Gerber rice cereal with honey added).  This little fellow is Boots, who lost both of his rear legs to gangrene when he entered the Rescue in July, 2004.  Most recently (March, 2006), he has lost a great deal of mobility but is still able to get around.

PetMate makes other gravity feed waterers also, including items called "bistro" and "cafe" waterers.  We have tried all of them and the one described above seems to be the best suited in terms of ease of care, effectiveness, and cost.  The "cafe" waterers, although they may look a little more attractive have too many parts that are hard to clean and are more unwieldy.

EXERCISE WHEELS      

For captive hedgehogs, who are accustomed to foraging about for food and romance (not necessarily in that order) covering four to seven miles per night, a good exercise wheel is essential.  Unfortunately, most small animal exercise wheels are designed for sure-footed rodents.  These rodent wheels may be hazardous to the more clumsy hedgehog, who may break a leg trying to run on a wheel with open rungs as the running surface.  Over the years, hedgehog caretakers have come to realize this and have developed wheels with solid running surfaces to accommodate their less than graceful gait.  Some hedgehog wheels, including the earliest ones, have been made of metal.  We have found that these have not been particularly stable and were a little hazardous in that injuries (small lacerations) could occur.  One brand, called the Wodent Wheel, had a solid wall on one side of the wheel and circular entry/exit ports on the other side.  We found this wheel particularly difficult to clean.  And cleaning is a big part of wheel maintenance, since many, if not most hedgehogs poop and pee on the run, leaving their wheel with pronounced residue. 

Around 1998, Jennifer Young of California (the same pioneer that founded the International Hedgehog Registry) developed a hedgehog wheel known as the "bucket wheel."  It was an exercise wheel made of PVC pipes and the bottom of a five gallon industrial bucket.  We were fortunate to purchase a good number of Jennifer's wheels early on (she no longer makes them) because although many folks have followed her in the making of bucket wheels, we feel that hers were still the best - for several reasons.  First, it is interesting to note that five gallon industrial plastic buckets come in differing thicknesses of plastic, the most common thicknesses being from .060 mil to .090 mil.  The thicker the better - because it makes the wheel much more stable.  The thinner plastic tends to warp and vibrate when running.  Jennifer's wheels were always .090 mil.  Second, Jennifer's wheels used a double stanchion support that converged at the axle, providing for a more stable wheel.  Third, the cut surface of the wheel was smoothed out so no rough edges could abrade hedgehog legs as they entered and exited the wheel.  Finally, although others have also creatively adopted the use of an inline roller skate wheel and bearing to allow the wheel to move, Jennifer's wheels used plastic harnesses (see photographs below) to attach the roller skate wheel to the bucket which eliminated rust and the cracking of the plastic found in using metal screws (which are universally used in the bucket wheels of today).  Three photographs of the Jennifer Young wheel follow:

The above wheels have been in continuous service here at the Rescue for as long as seven years now.  Many folks using bucket wheels often complain about the inline skate bearings rusting and failing, a condition that we have not experienced here.  I think the reason we have not had this problem is because we do not immerse and soak the wheels when cleaning them, but rather clean them in a few minutes using the spray attachment in the sink and a small brush, and either drying the wheel or setting it aside to dry (so the bearings never sit soaking in water). 

We use bucket wheels for smaller hedgehogs because we feel that they are not stable enough to support the greater weight of the more substantial pogs.  Our rule of thumb is generally to use bucket wheels for hedgehogs up to about 350 grams.  For larger hedgehogs, we have long used The Decker Wheel (below).

Pioneered by Curt Decker of British Columbia, The Decker Wheel provided stability that the bucket wheel did not and therefore was better suited to more substantial hedgehogs.  Unfortunately, Curt no longer makes his wheels, but several new designs have been under development since last September that promise impressive advances in wheel technology (at the moment these new designs are classified SECRET by the Hedgehog Training and Materiel Testing Command).  The Decker Wheels came in several sizes - ten inch, twelve inch, fourteen inch, and sixteen inch.  Here at the Rescue, we have used the ten, twelve, and fourteen inch sizes.  The most common size is the ten inch, which can accommodate most hedgehogs, followed by the twelve inch, which can handle even the largest hedgehog.  The fourteen inch size (of which we only have one) is too large for our condos in the Hedgiehouse and must be used in a open-top accommodation. 

The Decker wheels have wooden platforms and a wooden stanchion on both sides that attach to small axles which are affixed to crossbeams.  The crossbeams attach to embroidery hoops which hold in place the running surface, which is made of plastic mesh.  Unlike the bucket wheels, the plastic mesh allows pee to drain through and poop to be pummeled through the mesh and not remain in toto on the running surface.  The wheels are very stable and surprisingly easy to clean once you get the hang of it.  Some Decker Wheels are pictured below:

Nine year old Decker ten inch wheel:

Twelve inch Decker Wheel in a Hedgiehouse condo:

Sweetie (IHR No. 3130), at the time blind and five and a half years of age, tools along on her ten inch Decker wheel:

Sweetie, retiring after a hard run, leaves poop behind for the caretaker to clean up:

Silverbelle (IHR No. 42) running on a Decker twelve inch wheel outside:

Naturally, with lots of hedgehogs using lots of wheels over a long period of time, there has to be a place for maintenance and repair.  Here's the Wheel Depot Facility of the Hedgehog Training and Materiel Testing Command (MILPOGTMATCOM):

The NEW wheels are currently being tested by MILPOGTMATCOM and the prospects look very good that these will be THE wheels of the future.  More to come when the project has been declassified.

Usually, we assign Decker Wheels based upon hedgehog weight.  Twelve inch wheels are usually used when a hedgehog weighs over 500 grams.  If the hedgehogs in a colony (two to six hedgehogs living together), the Decker Wheel size is determined by the weight of the heaviest hedgehog in the colony.  Smaller hedgehogs can easily run on the larger wheels, as little Silverbelle (seldom weighing over 300 grams) demonstrates above.

ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES

One final thing I'd like to say about environment and our preferences and habits.  Back when our rescue was located in Fort Collins, Colorado, we had a back yard that had a lawn.  There was also a cement patio level with the lawn.  Our caretaker had taken four of the boys out to the lawn for a romp in the green stuff.  On the patio he laid some towels and put four hollowed out logs on the towels.  The boys foraged around on the lawn for between 45 minutes and an hour.  All four, at different times, eventually waddled up on the patio and settled in under a log.  The interesting thing was that each one went to HIS own log (the log he had in his condo).  They made no mistakes and didn't fool around, but went straight inside his very own log (remember our keen sense of smell - we can smell things six inches underground!)

Warm regards, Little Flash Akwekon, IHR No. 932, Senior Hedgehog at the Rescue from February, 1998 until February, 2002.