Thinking about a small pet. Need info.

[phosfate]

Hedgehogs? Discuss.

Comments

[snacky]

I fully support a hedgehog as a pet. Get one, get one!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Well, there's the whole can I keep it alive and happy thing... (see also sugar glider, those weird little domestic fox things, etc.).

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Don't know anything about them, but I like the idea 'cos they're adorable.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this site?

[fictionbya.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about them. This is what I do know:

Pros
- Cute
- Small

Cons
- Spikey

I've had mice before and they make nice small pets. I really enjoyed having mice. This is what I know about mice:

Pros
- Cute
- Small

Cons
- Pee on your hand

It could be that hedgehogs might pee on your hand too though.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I worry that they're too tiny. I had a bad experience as a child where I fell on an escaped gerbil, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

[theodicy.livejournal.com]

Awwww, wee Tiggy!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I wonder if St Tiggywinkle's in the UK is still going. If you found an injured hedgehog, you could give it to the local train station, and they'd make sure it got to St Tiggywinkle's for medical care.

[shoiryu.livejournal.com]

Rats are actually very nice, too. They're small, smart, personable, are least likely to bite of all pet rodents in my experience, and they're fairly inexpensive to keep.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I have heard many good things about rats.

Do they like being carried around in snuggy bags? Do they travel well at all?

Hedgehogs

[danakate.livejournal.com]

I've never had one myself, but the SO, three_d, has.

He says they're easy to care for, however for them to be cute and cuddly they require a lot of interaction. They're very solitary by nature. Their cages must be kept really clean as they can apparently get depressed if it's not. Looks like they're very clean little creatures (his hated using the bathroom in her cage and would often wait until he took her out of the cage to do her business). And, you have to vacuum around them because their spines do fall out from time to time.

Also, buy a nice pair of thick leather gloves. If they're outside their cage and they get into a bad mood, you have to handle an angry spiky ball. Literally a ball. When they get that way, it probably means "I'm scared of everything today" so they should go back into their cage quickly.

So, definitely not a kid pet, but if you're willing to be patient and spend time with them, they are amusing and fun and omg they're so cute!

[a-hollow-year.livejournal.com]

On the downside, they're spiky on top. On the upside, they have soft little tummies. I love 'em - go for it.

[cocoajava.livejournal.com]

Dinsdale!!!!!

Hmmm. I'd rather have an ickle fuzzbutted rabbit, to be honest.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I do like rabbits. I know nothing about keeping them, but before I was born we had one that frightenend a plumber.

[tacohime.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Hedgehogs are great! Christian has had two of them as pets, but sadly didn't have good luck. The thing you gotta remember is to keep them warm, give them lots of room to run around, keep them away from weird smells, and give 'em fun snacks like veggies and hamburger meat. They're very, very sweet.

His first hedge had to be put down after it was discovered that he had hedgehog MS (which of course made me ask if I was going to get put to sleep like Rocky when I found out: I was assured it was not so). His second hedgehog suffered some trauma/shock after Christian moved and had to put him in a smaller space (he's still feeling crappy about that, but I think he might've been sick, as he came from a shady pet store).

Look for a reliable breeder, too. Pet stores are shady and you, too, could have a hedge with gimpy MS.

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

Aw, c'mon, just lookit the icon! Squee!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Hedgey!

[ex-sporknin.livejournal.com]

I just bought my boyfriend a guinea pig because he has been a very good boy. He is the cutest thing ever. The guinea pig. The boyfriends excitement was rather adorable too.

The only reason I wouldnt get a hedgehog is they are too spindly for proper cuddling, and cuddling is important. If you're looking for cuddles, you need sugar gliders. Their favorite thing in the world is cuddling, and its recommended to get a pair, so that while you are off being a human, they wont go without their precious cuddles. Their diet can be a bit of a hassle, but that's true with any small mammal that isnt a hamster or gerbil or rat.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

I vote yes. Then you just need some flamingos, and you can play croquet.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I like the way you think.

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I'd think a hedgehog would be nifty, provided you avoided the pitfalls I found on this site (http://exoticpets.about.com/library/howto/hthh1.htm), particularly "Do not grab your hedgehog from above (ouch) or hold it in such a way that a finger could get trapped by the hedgehog rolling into a ball (big ouch!)"

I can speak to rats, as one of my brothers brought Zhivago and Beowulf home after experimenting on them in a class (sadly, Godzilla could not join them in their bid for freedom.) They were pretty friendly and curious, at least up until one of his friends (I'm SURE it was a friend) decided they should be given their freedom in a nearby restaurant. Or so I was told. You never entirely know when my brothers are pulling my leg, of course, but the rats did go away at that point. I mostly remember it was fun that you could handle them by the tail (not as much fun as possums are, because possums have a really firm tailshake, but fun nonetheless) and that if we brought them outside on the lawn they would seek shelter in my pantsleg, by preference. (They just about fit up to the knee, then they'd wiggle and that was VERY ticklish of them.)

I can also speak to guinea pigs, as another brother had one of THOSE (Smurfette) until we had to give it away because Dad developed an allergy. She was a lovely shorthair, and very friendly, although also inclined to scurry for cover if brought out and set in the middle of the lawn (she went for the prickly bushes, though, rather than my pants, FWIW.) She made the most amazing range of sounds from an alarmed squeak to a purr of about 3 on the richter scale to a squeal that said, "I KNOW there's lettuce inside that refrigerator you just opened!) The purr appeared if she liked you petting her, if you fed her lettuce, or if you fed her grass.

Fish are not much fun to pet, and are really easy to kill, although Fonzie and Pinky lasted pretty long in our household. Monarch butterflies (Alice and George) tend to get lost in any brownish furnishings you might have, and eventually disappear mysteriously with no explanation. And that would be the sum total of my experience with pets of any type.

So now that you've got the contents of my head, I need to go add more stuffing. ;-)

[theredwitch.livejournal.com]

As long as you're not thinking of getting some sort of midget yappy-dog. Nasty creatures. Both my sisters have recently discussed getting them. (Carla already has a cat, and Cherin retains custody of her ex-boyfriend's hamsters...) I blame Paris Hilton. DAMN YOU PARIS HILTON, et cetera.

[theredwitch.livejournal.com]

*mental note to suggest hedgehogs to the sisterlings*

[norabombay.livejournal.com]

Guniea Pigs are great. Big personalities. Squeak a lot- you need to get two.

However, if you want to carry it around, I say give serious consideration to a chichua or other small dog. Personable, travel well, and with a full support industry to care for them when you leave town...

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

No. Dear Jesus, no.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Hedgehogs look like fun pets, but all sorts of interesting pets are illegal here in CA, (hedgehogs, ferrets, skunks, and so on) so I wouldn't know personally. :( Although my 7th grade biology teacher had one in her classroom (bought it in Nevada I think, then had to go through oodles of red tape to bring it back into CA)

And I was so young when I was living in the UK I can't really remember if people kept hedgehogs as actual pets, not counting the occasional wild one that made its way to our garden to munch on the cat food that we set out for it.

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

Hedgehogs = VERY YES

I have wanted a hedgehog for about two years now. It's gotten to the point where I have EVERYTHING I COULD POSSIBLY NEED to care for a hedgehog - cage, larger cage, treats, sawdust, little hedgehog food and water dishes, books on hedgehog care - except the hedgehog. Mostly because as nice as it would be, I don't think I'm ready to commit to another life that's fully dependant on my own. Yanno?

But, yes. Hedgehogs. They are grand. I fully endorse this.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Yanno?

Oh, hells yes.

Fish

[susanmgarrett.livejournal.com]

Goldfish - 25 cents each
5 gallon habitat with self-cleaning filter - $40.00
Changable backdrop for back of habitat to weird fish out - Pastels or colored pencils, glue, paper scraps and macaroni - $2.00
Ability to replace fish - priceless

No toilet training, keep near a warm vent, minimal smell, can live for weeks on one of those disolvable shells, and if you spent a lot of time with it, it will learn to do things like spit gravel at the glass.

Re: Fish

[finabair.livejournal.com]

OK, you do have a point. And angelfish are really fun 'cuz they STARE at you, although I think more expensive to replace.

[moondog.livejournal.com]

Hedgies!! YES.

I've had two. They are wonderful, sweet, fun little things. You can use gardening gloves to pick them up if they're skiddish (one of mine was a total spaz -- he was probably abused by elementary school children before he was pawned off to me by a librarian). When their spines are down they're fun to pet and their bellies are soooft.

Beware of mites. The make hedgies sad, grey and scratchy.

If they're legal in your vicinity, totally go for it.

Rats are fun, too.