I used to raise them, quite fun! I had 14 total.
They can eat cat food, but it has to be good quality. Can't be filled up with grains.
They like cottage cheese at a treat, good for calcium too. Just a little dab once a day.
Meal worms are a good live food, as a treat. They don't escape like crickets do.
The cage cleaning needs to be done as often as any cage bound creature. They can get "butt rot" too if the humidity gets too high like aquarium cages tend to. They need fresh dry bedding. They can learn to use a littler box though, after they've selected their corner in the cage, take some icky bedding from there, put it into a ferret litter box, place it in the same corner, and they'll begin to use it.
If you don't take care with the diet, they can get prone to quill fungus (where the quills fall out and yellow crusties form on the skin) or other such ailments. Cat food alone is not enough, and there's some key differences between kitty food and the more expensive hedgie food.
They're primarily nocturnal, but waking them up and playing with them during the day helps them sleep at night. If no one is available to do that, it's best to keep them out of a bedroom unless the sleeper can deal with water bottle use, rattles, rustles... and other nightime sounds of activity.
Handling is important, it doesn't take long for them to go "wild" since they are not a domesticated animal. And one that goes mean needs to be handled with gloves. Those little quills are not for decoration and they're actually quite sharp.
Give them a toilet paper tube, it's hilarious. They stick their head in it and walk around with "tunnel vision". So funny!
Don't use cedar bedding.
They don't care about tunnels. Maybe a rabbit sized short piece, just make sure anything you put in the cage they won't get stuck to.
They need a decent sized cage, and monitored feeding. They can be prone to weight gain, and that cuts their life expectancy dramatically. I purchased a male from a kid that was as wide as he was long, and you couldn't hardly see his eyes. Took months to get him to a healthy weight! And my meanest girl was attracted to him from the first day, she'd sleep on top of her nest box and stare at him all moony-eyed. She actually wanted to live with him, and usually they only come together for breeding and hate roommates once they reach maturity. But it was funny, mean little female fell in love with the uber friendly fat boy. She would bristle up at me, he'd run over to get held. He helped tame her down a bit.
They can eat cat food, but it has to be good quality. Can't be filled up with grains.
They like cottage cheese at a treat, good for calcium too. Just a little dab once a day.
Meal worms are a good live food, as a treat. They don't escape like crickets do.
The cage cleaning needs to be done as often as any cage bound creature. They can get "butt rot" too if the humidity gets too high like aquarium cages tend to. They need fresh dry bedding. They can learn to use a littler box though, after they've selected their corner in the cage, take some icky bedding from there, put it into a ferret litter box, place it in the same corner, and they'll begin to use it.
If you don't take care with the diet, they can get prone to quill fungus (where the quills fall out and yellow crusties form on the skin) or other such ailments. Cat food alone is not enough, and there's some key differences between kitty food and the more expensive hedgie food.
They're primarily nocturnal, but waking them up and playing with them during the day helps them sleep at night. If no one is available to do that, it's best to keep them out of a bedroom unless the sleeper can deal with water bottle use, rattles, rustles... and other nightime sounds of activity.
Handling is important, it doesn't take long for them to go "wild" since they are not a domesticated animal. And one that goes mean needs to be handled with gloves. Those little quills are not for decoration and they're actually quite sharp.
Give them a toilet paper tube, it's hilarious. They stick their head in it and walk around with "tunnel vision". So funny!
Don't use cedar bedding.
They don't care about tunnels. Maybe a rabbit sized short piece, just make sure anything you put in the cage they won't get stuck to.
They need a decent sized cage, and monitored feeding. They can be prone to weight gain, and that cuts their life expectancy dramatically. I purchased a male from a kid that was as wide as he was long, and you couldn't hardly see his eyes. Took months to get him to a healthy weight! And my meanest girl was attracted to him from the first day, she'd sleep on top of her nest box and stare at him all moony-eyed. She actually wanted to live with him, and usually they only come together for breeding and hate roommates once they reach maturity. But it was funny, mean little female fell in love with the uber friendly fat boy. She would bristle up at me, he'd run over to get held. He helped tame her down a bit.
