How did you become interested in hedgehogs!

[Love4Hedgies]

I'm just carious how everyone became interested in hedgies. And when you got your first one and why?

I know I have liked them forever. I can't pinpoint when I first wanted one but I knew I always did. Then when I was a freshmen in college I was lonely at school with out my cats and knew I wanted a dorm animal (even though they are not allowed). So I went to the pet store and there was Zoe! :)

After much convincing, my mom let me get her and now is also in love with hedgehogs! And you all know once you get one, you want another. So I just got my second, Lilly, on Sunday.

If I had it my way, I'd have a whole room full of them and be breeding but mom says I have to wait until I have a good paying job :rolleyes:!!

Well lets hear everyone else's stories now!!

[sarah1984]

Lol I never wanted a hedgehog, I bought Scooter for my BF who's always wanted one and I fell in love! now I have 3!

[hedgiebedgie]

My first experience with hedgehogs came in 1990 when I was living in Chiswick, England. I had a large back garden and there were four or five hedgehogs who lived under the shrubs. On Spring and Summer evenings, they would come out and search the flower beds for insects and grubs. During the years I lived in Chiswick, I would sit outside and watch them. They were not particularly concerned about my being around as long as I did not try to get too close.

While I was working in Western Kazakhstan later in the 1990’s, I found an injured hedgehog in the dessert. Apparently it had been attacked by a wolf or a wild dog. It’s left front leg had severe bite marks and was infected. Unfortunately, there were no veterinarians available in that part of Kazakhstan. It was shortly after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the area which lies on the border between Europe and Asia was extremely impoverished. An old Korean man who had lived in the area all of his life and was a homeopathic doctor put together a concoction of tea tree oil. sulfur and some other herbs and root extracts for the hedgehog’s leg and a substance to get rid of the ticks and fleas. This home made medicines got rid of the infection and the insect infestation and the wounds to the hedgehog’s leg healed very well. Although it was an older wild animal, it became somewhat tamer while I had it was caring for it. I knew that it must be released back into the wild as soon as it was well and strong enough to take care of itself, so I resisted the urge to try to fully domesticate it. After about five weeks of healing, it was ready to return to its life in the dessert. It was a sad day when I had to tell him goodbye and watch as he shuffled off into the scrub grass that grows in his natural habitat. I was surprised a few months later to find that he had set up residence not far from the Quonset hut in which I was living. He had made a burrow and had attracted a female. It was not long until the hedgehog population began to boom in the area as he was joined by others.

As the camp dogs kept the wolves and wild dogs away and had themselves no interest in hedgehogs, for over two and one-half years there were no natural predators to harass the new hedgehog population. I never tried to count the hedgehogs but I am sure there must have been over one hundred. In the evenings they would come scurrying through the camp which was not completely fenced. The consistently demonstrated an aversion to humans. I insisted to my colleagues that they not feed the hedgehogs because the might become dependent upon us for food, which could result in their loss of survival skills. Nonetheless, the hedgehogs soon learned where they could find the camp dogs’ food dishes and began to help themselves. The dogs never seemed to mind sharing with the hedgehogs and would even wait until the hedgehogs had eaten their fill and begun to waddle off before they would approach their own dishes. This was of concern to me as well because I was afraid that the hedgehogs would lose their natural fear of wolves and wild dogs, making themselves susceptible to attack as their population spread away from the camp.

One of the main jobs of the camp dogs was to keep wolves away from the camp. This required that from time to time the dogs be taken out to the perimeter which was a good distance from the camp center. The purpose was to let the dogs mark a wide perimeter around the camp to warm off wolves and pack dogs. On one of these expeditions, a pack of wild dogs managed to enter the hedgehogs’ territory in the early evening. Unfortunately the hedgehogs had just become active about half an hour before. We could hear the pack as they began their run. Of course everyone went outside to see what was going on. The pack consisted of about twelve or fourteen dogs. Although we fired pistols into the air to frighten the dogs away, they managed to kill about twenty or so hedgehogs before departing. This was not terribly severe in comparison to the number they could have killed. We removed the dead hedgehogs to a point outside our perimeter and buried them deep enough so they would not attract predators who might develop a taste for hedgehogs.

The following Spring, out of boredom we undertook a camp beautification project and began planting indigenous trees and flowers around the Quonset huts. Of course the flower beds attracted worms, caterpillars and a variety of other ground crawling and hopping insects. Also, some of us planted herbs, cherry tomatoes, onions and other vegetables in the gardens. The bountiful supply of treats was a temptation that the hedgehogs could not resist. Before long, some hedgehogs relocated their living area to the flower gardens. Having lived in England for several years and having had resident back garden hedgehogs, I could tell that these hedgehogs are larger than European hedgehogs. We were careful not to interfere with the hedgehogs’ natural comings and goings. We made it a practice to stand perfectly still whenever we saw a hedgehog approaching and would let it pass without incident before proceeding on our way. I have sometimes wondered whether or not taking care of that injured hedgehog and returning it to the wild was the right thing to do. On the one hand, had it been allowed to die of its wounds there would have been no human contact on the part of the hedgehogs and the damage to the instincts of the hedgehogs that resulted from interaction with humans would have been avoided. On the other hand, had it not been for the recovery and release of the injured hedgehog, the population that resulted from its continued life would never have existed. Maybe letting human emotions override common sense in rescuing wild animals is not always a good idea. The cycle of life and death is perfectly natural and one could argue that saving the life of even one wild animal of an otherwise thriving species upsets the balance of nature and the natural economics of the ecosystem. From another perspective, failure of a human to show compassion for the suffering of a living creature may detract from the very essence of what makes us human. These are not easy questions to answer. It may be that only a few million years of hedgehog evolution in Western Kazakhstan will bring an answer to these questions about that one hedgehog, but by then they will be questions that no one remembers to ask. I wish I were smart enough to figure it all out, but I’ve never been all that bright.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/587539/Luke.gif

[SunsetBeauty]

Good question!

I remember being younger and seeing a hedgie in a pet store. I always thought they were cool, but at the time I never got one. Then last year, I found this board - and I started reading all the post about hedgies and started asking questions - then I thought "Why not?" It's not like I don't already have one of everything - might as well add a hedgie!! lol. So anyway, I got Sonic (or pin cushion depending on who you talk to! lol) in October. I also manged to "talk" my best friend into getting one too!! So we have sibling hedgies!!! And he is so cool. I love watching him run around in his wheel and in his playpen. I am definiatly in love with him. But, I don't think I would want more than one at a time. Sonic is more than enough hedgie for me!! lol. Of course, that's what I said about my birds - and look what happened!! I am so addicted to animals, it's not funny. :)

Kate

[Nancy]

I knew hedgehogs existed in the wild in europe but I had no idea they were also pets. The store my daughter works at got one in and it was love at first site. Ally, that is how little we knew about hedgies at the time, we thought he was a girl DUH, was just the sweetest, nicest hedgie ever. He was one in a million. We had him for 9 very short days. We realized on the 4th day that he was sick. The only exotics vet in the area was booked solid and then out of town. Finally on day 6 we got another vet to look at him but by this time he had pnemonia. The antibiotics, syringe feeding and our round the clock care did not help and our poor little boy died. What a gentle little soul he was. Not once with all that was done to him did he ball up or fully quill up. Just a quick pouf of his head quills and a scowl on his little face let us know he didn't like what was being done but I think he understood we were trying to help.

He was the start of our hedgie addiction and his death is the reason I am so anal about the ones we have now.

Here's Ally exploring and Ally sleeping in Jess's hands shortly before he died.
Nancy

[hedger]

I first met a hedgehog when i was like 8 years old. my best friend's older sister had one and whenever i went over to his house I would always beg to get the hedgehog out. I wanted one soo bad, but my parents told me I had to wait until I could get a job.
We moved away from my friend and hedgehog and I kind of forgot about it until we moved down to New Mexico and I heard of a local breeder. I had a job by then and I got Luna, my adorable little hedgie girl shortly after.

[Miyagi]

i was teaching english in finland in 1997 and the nature in finland is beautiful! every night my friend and i would go for a walk in the woods and every night we'd see hedgehogs!! they certainly look different than the ones we get here, they are much bigger there!

so fast forward to last year...my husband and i wanted a pet but didn't know what kind to get. one day i was in a pet store and saw our little miyagi and right away i knew i wanted one...

so now i have miyagi...and everytime i look at him i remember my days in finland!!

delia :)

[kendra]

In grade 6 our class did a lot of research into animals we could get as a class pet, we did a fund raiser and had a vote (this also happened to be part of our government project). We finally decided on a hedgehog, and named him Spike (how original). He was great and we all took turns taking home on the weekend (with parents permission of course). I was hooked on them right away, when I moved schools in grade 7, I asked my mom if I could get one. She initially said no, but we were looking through the bargain finder (our local classifides) one day, and saw one for sale, complete with cage, etc. I ended up getting her and naming her Cinnamon.

So I guess it was having one as a class pet that drew me to them, and I now have Sophie, over 7 years after being introduced to them. They really are fascinating, magnificent little creatures.

[JUSTINE]

The first time I seen a hedgie was in a pet store. I fell in love with them. :love: :D I thought they were so interesting to watch and sooooo cute.Ohyah I got mine on my birthday.Aftaer begging for a week straight. :laugh:

[blue_soda025]

Well, I don't have one..... (yet?). I might be getting one in the future. I remember seeing them at a pet store several years ago and I thought they were kinda interesting. It was just recently that I really became interested. I've been coming to this board since last year but I only went to the chins sections. Then for some reason.. I decided to read about hedgies since I never go to that part of the forum.. so.. ^^;;
I doubt I'll be able to get one for a while though. Besides, my parents think I already have enough pets. :X