Wheels and quarantine

[SherAlana]

OK, I just recently purchased 2 females from a breeder and they will be here on March 24th, I will be housing them together. However, I just saw a post for another female that needs to be rescued and she lives near me so I thought I would take her in as well around the same time. I have read your post about quarintine and uderstand the 30 days. I just have a few questions:

Do they have to be in seperate rooms?

Do you have to have one wheel per hedgehog? ( I currently have 2 wheels)

Should I take the new rescue to the vet first?

What size enclosure should I be quarantining in? ( I use sterilite, and have 2 huge containers for the girls coming from the breeder, but I don't want something that big for the rescue because I would like to house her with the other girls eventually, what is the minimum I could get away with sterilite wise?)

Does is matter that the rescue will be 3 mo. old after the 30 days and that my other two girls will be about 5 mo. old? I didn't know if age difference would prevent them getting along.

I am prepared to buy the rescue a whole set up of her own if she does not get along with my other 2 girls who will be coming together. But, I would love it if they could all be in the same enclosure.

Thank you guys for helping!

[Nancy]

That is awesome! :applause:

I would keep them in seperate rooms for a few weeks just incase either your new girls or the rescue end up ill with something that could be spread through the air. Be sure and change clothes also handling one to the other. Sometimes the stress of moving to a new home is enough to trigger an illness.

Unless your little rescue (or the other two) have symptoms of illness, mites etc you should probably wait a week or two just incase she/they are incubating something that wouldn't show up immediately.

Some hedgehogs will share a wheel no problem. Others prefer their own but eventually 2 wheels between 3 girls should be ok.

A sterlite that gives 2 sq feet of floor space would be adequate for a while as long as you give her out time in the evening.

Age shouldn't make a difference with them getting along, personality would be more of an issue. Try them all together with increasingly longer playtimes and you could also put the rescue in to sleep with the other two during the day to help them get used to each other.

Congratulations on all the new girls. :)

[paris26]

Congrats on the new additions! It's just the beginning, you realize ;) I'm also hoping that all my girls will get along during freetime. I want them to play like Nancy's girls. Check out her pics on her website. It's awesome!

I have my newest girls in my bedroom for their quarentine.I do it for a full 30 days. During that time, I do a wellness exam, a fecal, a skin scraping. They get bathed and I also begin to transistion them to my hedgie mix and new foods. I do change shirts between the handling of my hogs, and of course my hands are like sandpaper from the frequent handwashing.

[Love4Hedgies]

Yay congrats! Three new ones! I ditto what the others said. :)