A small white hedgehog with dark-banded quills walking across weathered wooden boards

What living with a hedgehog is like

Your part of the day is the evening

A pet hedgehog weighs about a pound and fits in two cupped hands. It wakes around dusk, eats, then runs on its wheel for hours, so your part of the day is the evening: refill the food and water, wipe the wheel, and take the hedgehog out for a while. Expect about an hour a night in total, most of it sitting still with a hedgehog on your lap. They are not cuddly in the way a rabbit or a ferret is. A hedgehog huffs, clicks and rolls into a ball when startled, and it learns your scent and voice slowly. Each one lives alone, so you only ever need one. Two in a cage will fight.

Check the law and the health rules first

The law

Hedgehogs are banned as pets in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and the five boroughs of New York City.
A few other states and cities ask for a permit. Call your state wildlife agency and read your lease before you contact a breeder, because rules change and a ban can mean the animal is seized.

Clean hands

Hedgehogs can carry Salmonella in their droppings while looking healthy. Wash your hands with soap after handling the animal or anything from its cage, and clean cage items outside the kitchen.
The CDC advises against hedgehogs in homes with children under 5, adults 65 and older, or anyone with a weakened immune system.
Do not kiss a hedgehog or hold it against your face, and keep it off counters and tables where food is prepared.

Read the outbreak report

CDC: Salmonella infections linked to pet hedgehogs Free report on the outbreaks and the hand-washing advice that came out of them

How to get started

Tick these off as you go

A hedgehog on the rim of a white pot, its front paws resting on a person's fingers — Front paws on a finger

Find a vet, or a hedgehog that needs a home

Choosing a cage and keeping it warm

Floor space matters and height does not. Look for a single-level cage at least 2 by 3 feet, and go to 2 by 4 feet if you have the room.
The floor must be solid. Wire or mesh floors trap toes, and hedgehogs see poorly and fall off ramps and upper levels.
Check that the bar spacing is 1 inch or less and that the base is deep enough to hold a few inches of bedding without it being kicked out.
A wire top is the safest place to rest a heat lamp. Plastic-topped cages and storage bins need the lamp clamped above an opening, never touching plastic.
The wheel should be 10.5 to 12 inches across with a solid running surface and no cross bars. Smaller wheels bend the spine.
A ceramic heat emitter gives heat with no light, so it can run all night without waking the hedgehog. Always run it through a thermostat with the probe at bedding level.
Give about 12 hours of light a day from room lighting or a window, and 12 of darkness. Short winter days can trigger a hibernation attempt even in a warm room.
Before each evening's handling, read the thermometer. That one check catches a dead bulb or a tripped outlet before the hedgehog gets cold.

Feeding

The staple is a dry hedgehog food, or a high-quality low-fat cat kibble with small pieces. Many keepers mix the two.
Measure it. Three to four teaspoons a night is typical for an adult, fed in the evening when the hedgehog wakes.
Add a few insects two or three times a week. Dried ones are easy to store. Live mealworms or crickets are more nutritious and get the hedgehog foraging.
A teaspoon of soft extras is fine a couple of times a week: cooked egg, plain cooked chicken, apple, pear, banana or cooked carrot.
Never feed milk, nuts, seeds, raw meat, raw egg, avocado, chocolate, or hard raw vegetables that can wedge in the roof of the mouth.
Fresh water every night. Wash the bowl when you refill it.
Change foods gradually over a week or two by mixing the new into the old. A sudden switch causes green, loose droppings.

Check a food before you offer it

VCA Animal Hospitals: feeding hedgehogs Free vet-written list of what to feed and what to avoid

Handling and bonding

Scoop from below with both hands flat, palms under the belly, where the fur is soft. Reaching down from above feels like a predator.
Skip gloves. The hedgehog needs to learn your scent, and bare hands are fine once the quills are lying flat.
Let it sleep in a fleece sack on your lap while you read or watch something. Quiet time on you counts as much as active play.
Put a worn T-shirt in the cage for the first weeks so your smell is there all day.
If it licks something and then twists to spread foam on its quills, that is self-anointing. It looks alarming and is normal.
Hold a balled-up hedgehog still and wait rather than putting it back. Returning it every time it huffs teaches it that huffing works.
Trim nails every few weeks, a tip at a time. A shallow, warm foot bath beforehand softens them and makes the feet easier to reach.

A hedgehog rolled into a ball in one raised hand — Rolled up in a hand

Health and vet care

Hedgehogs need no vaccines, but a yearly exam with a fecal test catches mites, parasites and weight changes early.
A cold hedgehog is an emergency. If it is wobbly, cool to the touch on the belly and slow to unroll, warm it against your skin under a shirt and call the vet. Do not use hot water.
Heat is a risk too. A hedgehog lying flat and panting is overheated. Above about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, move the cage somewhere cooler.
Obesity is the most common problem in pets. A hedgehog that can no longer tuck fully into a ball is overweight.
Bad breath, dropped food or pawing at the mouth points to dental trouble or a mouth tumor, both common in older hedgehogs.
Check the feet weekly for hair or thread wrapped around a toe or leg. It cuts off circulation within days.
Flaky skin with quill loss in an adult usually means mites and needs a vet, not a home remedy.

Know the warning signs

VCA Animal Hospitals: hedgehog health problems Free guide to the signs of the common hedgehog illnesses

What trips beginners up

What to expect

Expect huffing, popping and balling up for the first weeks. It is fear, and it fades with nightly handling.
Expect a messy wheel every morning. Hedgehogs poop while they run, so the wheel gets rinsed daily.
Expect a grumpy patch between about 6 and 12 weeks old, when baby quills fall out and adult ones push through.
Expect to see little of it during the day. Waking a hedgehog at noon to play makes it less tame, not more.

What not to do

Do not rely on room heat alone. A house that feels comfortable to you can be cold enough at 3 a.m. to start a hibernation attempt.
Do not buy a wire or mesh wheel, a tall multi-level cage, or cedar bedding, however often they are sold for hedgehogs.
Do not free-feed or hand out mealworms daily. They are the hedgehog equivalent of fries.

A hedgehog in a small paper crown sitting on a grey cushion — On a cushion, in a paper crown

Where to learn more

Start with vet-written material, because hedgehog advice online ranges from careful to dangerous. VCA Animal Hospitals publishes free owner guides to housing, feeding and health, and the Merck Veterinary Manual has the reference numbers for temperature and diet. The Hedgehog Welfare Society is the long-running nonprofit for pet hedgehogs in North America: it runs a rescue network, keeps a list of vets who see hedgehogs, and has years of care articles in its newsletter archive. A good breeder is also a resource. The best ones answer questions for the life of the animal.

Free care guides worth bookmarking

What the kit covers

The hedgehog itself is not on Amazon and is the largest single cost: typically $150 to $350 from a breeder, less from a rescue. The startup range above is for the gear. Spend first on the heat setup, which is four separate parts (emitter, lamp fixture, thermostat and thermometer) because no one product does the job safely, and on a cage with enough floor. The wheel is the one item a hedgehog uses for hours every night, so a quiet, easy-to-rinse one pays for itself. Bedding, food and insects are the running costs, roughly $20 to $30 a month. Budget separately for the vet: a first exam usually runs $60 to $100.

A pale hedgehog climbing over a turquoise plaid blanket laid on dry grass — Climbing over a blanket

Build the warm cage

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The first line, the hedgehog, is not something you buy online: it comes from a licensed breeder or a rescue.

African pygmy hedgehog

essentialThe animal

Hedgehogs live alone, so the starting point is one healthy, well-socialized animal from someone who handled it daily.

Not sold on Amazon · licensed breeder or rescue

Not sold on Amazon. Look for a USDA-licensed breeder or a hedgehog rescue, and ask for the birth date (6 weeks minimum, 8 is better), the parents' health history, and the food it is eating. Expect $150 to $350 from a breeder, or an adoption fee of up to about $100.

Large single-level cage with a solid floor

essentialHousing

A hedgehog covers a lot of ground at night and needs floor room for a 12-inch wheel, a hide and bowls with space left to walk.

budget

MidWest Homes for Pets Guinea Habitat Plus Cage, Includes Divider Panel and Hinged Top, Washable PVC Canvas Bottom, Expandable Small Animal Cage for Guinea Pigs, 171GHP

4.6(15.6K)

$72.99

Hedgehog Keeping

What living with a hedgehog is like

Check the law and the health rules first

How to get started

Choosing a cage and keeping it warm

Feeding

Handling and bonding

Health and vet care

What trips beginners up

Where to learn more

What the kit covers

Build the warm cage

African pygmy hedgehog

Large single-level cage with a solid floor

Solid-surface exercise wheel (12 inch)

Ceramic heat emitter bulb

Clamp lamp fixture with a ceramic socket

Plug-in thermostat for the heat lamp

Digital thermometer with a probe

Dry hedgehog food

Unscented paper bedding

Hideout

Heavy food and water bowls

Dried insect treats

Fleece snuggle sack

Small hard-sided travel carrier

Small animal nail clippers