Stinky or not Stinky that is the Question!

[winterwolf]

I'm just looking into the possiblity of adding a Hedgehog to my crew and I wanted to know how stinky :confused: that tend to be both in litter and body odor. For example I would rate Chinchilla's and ZERO strinky and Ferrets as SUPER STINKY.
How often do all you hedgie people clean cages or litter boxes?
Thanks!
Laura

[paris26]

I would say that hedgehogs are slightly stinky based on your scale from chin to ferret. It all depends on their age, what you feed them, the type of bedding/litter and how often you clean them.

I change liners every 3 days, pick poops up and scoop litterpans daily. I completely wash out the cages weekly. I also feed a high quality mix of holistic cat foods as my main staple. I find that the urine has a strong odor, and that babies are "stinkier" than adults, because the world is their potty area :)

My older hedgehog Annabelle keeps her cage relatively clean and is a clean hedgehog in general, where my younger boys ( 3 mos and 3.5 mos) are poop machines and like to track it everywhere.
Cleaning of poopy feet/wheels daily helps with their hygiene and the overall smell.

[teela1342]

I agree with paris26. They don't have the musky BO that ferrets or skunks have. And they don't have the urine smell that seems to be unavoidable with hamsters or guinea pigs. And of course, no fur means no doggie/kitty smell. Most of their scent is potty related. This is easy to control - just keep their cages clean.

It is the poopy feet that make Jake my little stinkpot. But I try to clean his feet daily or at least every other day. Not a full bath, just put a towel down in the bath and run about an inch of warm water and let him wander around on the wet towel for a little while.

I change his cage liner when it looks too funky. I scoop his litter every couple of days.

My roommate has a super sonic stink finding nose and she doesn't notice anything smelly from him (as long as I have just washed the paws).

[Janine]

When I first got my hedgehog I had newspaper bedding and kept her container in a small area. She was STINKY. But now that I use shavings and keep things a little better ventilated there is no problem at all - zero stinky :).

[Ododad]

Odo and Marco have no body oder that I can tell. Odo's poops actually don't stink either and I have yet to smell any urine. Marco's poops smell pretty bad, but I just pick them up as soon as I see them and the smell goes away. Both wheels stink in the morning, they get washed every day so that's no problem either. I have had no oder problem to speak of.

[Lauren]

I dont find them to smell really at all aslong as you keep their cage clean, wheels clean and feet.

They can be SOOOOO smelly depending on the food that you feed them though. One brand that I tried made their poops smell VERY bad. The mix Im using now is fine. :)

[ejw829]

I find that hedgies as animals are not stinky. At least, the 5 that I've had didn't smell.

They're poops, on the other hand... :Pukey: Not so nice. Meat-based diets tend to cause the poo-tinkies but when compared to a ferret, hedgie potty odor is nil.

[winterwolf]

I dont find them to smell really at all aslong as you keep their cage clean, wheels clean and feet.

They can be SOOOOO smelly depending on the food that you feed them though. One brand that I tried made their poops smell VERY bad. The mix Im using now is fine. :)

I did end up getting a very sweet little Hedgie I've named Sprinkles because she looks like a ball of ice cream with chocolate and white sprinkles! :laugh:
So then what do you feed that keeps the smell down and so I can get it and what did you feed that made it worse so I can avoid it? I hope the good stuff you can buy online because I have yet to find ANY Hedgie food in the pet stores near me. It's starting to look like Chicken Soup Cat food lite for my little girl! :love:
Thanks for all the helpful responses!
Laura

[Ododad]

My pogs eat a staple diet of CSFTCLS Lite and a few mealies a day. I will soon be feeding a mixture of Wellness, CSFTLC Lite, RC Lite38 and mealies. I ran out of SCFTCLS once and fed them CSFTCLS kitten formula for a week. Their poops got really, really bad on the kitten formula. Of course, when I change their diet to the new mix, it will be done slowly, a little at a time. The only time their poops were really bad was on the kitten formula.

I am so glad you got your little girl. I think that you will find her as unusal and amazing as I have found mine to be. This board is just chocked full of information on hedgies and the people here are awesome about helping out with questions. I would love to see a photo when you can. The fun and joy and love that my hedgies have given me far, far outweigh any smell they may cause. They don't stink, and if the poops do, as soon as I remove the poops, the smell is gone.