December 4, 2008
UW staffer happily hawking — hedgehogs!
From the moment she first saw the picture, Anne Graham was captivated. She’d been poking around one of those “funny pet” Web sites, and there was a photo of some hedgehogs.
“They looked really interesting and cute,” she said. “I have two dogs and two cats already, so I didn’t need another pet, but I knew immediately that I had to have a hedgehog.”
So, even though she’d never seen or held a live hedgehog, Graham, who is a senior computer specialist for the UW Libraries’ Digital Initiatives Program, began shopping for one.
What she learned is that hedgehogs aren’t that easy to get. They aren’t native to North America, and the kind that are native to Europe and the British Isles are prohibited as pets. Countries in Africa that used to export African pygmy hedgehogs no longer do so. As a result, the only hedgehogs available in this country have been bred from those that were imported before the ban went into effect.
When Graham learned how difficult it was to find the animals, she determined to get a pair so that she could breed them. “I’ve kind of wanted to breed animals for a long time, but I knew that dogs and cats would be more of a commitment than I was willing to make,” she said. “I thought I could handle hedgehogs.”
She eventually bought a male from a breeder in Missouri and a female from a breeder in Oregon. The two — named Basil and Charlotte — have already produced one litter of four, which Graham advertised on University Week’s classifieds. Two of those were placed with members of the University community; the other two were sold through a separate ad.
What are hedgehogs? They’re a small mammal that looks like a miniature porcupine, but the two animals are not related. African pygmy hedgehogs like Graham’s are from 5 to 8 inches long and weigh less than a pound. Like porcupines, they’re covered with quills, but the quills are not barbed or very sharp. Still, Graham says, her dogs and cats have learned to respect the hedgehogs and give them a wide berth.
If you pick up a relaxed hedgehog, the quills feel like a scrub brush. Hedgehogs will bristle their quills when upset, but the quills don’t come off to stick in an enemy’s skin as porcupines’ do. When frightened, hedgehogs hiss loudly and curl up into a ball so that they resemble sea urchins.
What is it like to own a hedgehog? Well, like all animals, they do require some care. Graham keeps hers in an unused bathroom. Because they need warmth, she has a space heater that keeps the temperature at 75. They’re nocturnal, but because she wants them to be on the same schedule as her household, she uses lights on a timer to turn night into day and vice versa. Each of the adult hedgehogs has its own enclosure, “the largest Rubbermaid container I could find,” with wood shavings on the bottom and a small piece of fabric for the animals to hide under. You can’t keep adult males and females together because they would fight, Graham said. Each animal also has a wheel to run on, which is another reason to turn their days and nights around; the wheels tend to be noisy.
Hedgehogs in the wild eat mostly insects, but Graham feeds hers dry cat food supplemented by freeze-dried mealworms. She also has some live mealworms that she keeps in wheat bran so that they go through a complete life cycle — eggs to larvae (worms) to pupae to beetles. “I’ll put the hedgehogs into the container and they’ll go in and have a ball hunting and eating all stages of the mealworms,” Graham said.
She said the hedgehogs are a lot like other small animals, such as hamsters and gerbils. “They’re cuddly. You can pick them up when you’re watching TV and they’ll literally go to sleep on you. That’s kind of a nice thing. But they don’t have very strong personalities. I just think they’re special because, according to what I’ve read, they haven’t changed much since the time of the dinosaurs. I enjoy knowing that an animal is an ancient thing.”
Graham also enjoyed the experience of breeding Basil and Charlotte. She said the gestation period for these hedgehogs is about a month. “The babies are about an inch long when they’re born. They come out with no quills visible, but then the quills begin to come through the skin in an hour. It’s really been fun watching them grow up.”
She kept the babies with their mother for eight weeks, handling them every day to make sure they were socialized before offering them for sale for $175, which includes a wheel and some other cage accoutrements. She also asks that prospective owners complete a questionnaire on hedgehogs.
“I ask people to do some research about hedgehogs — there’s plenty for free online — and I’d like them to do well on the questionnaire before I let the babies go,” Graham said. “I just am really concerned about their welfare and want to make sure people aren’t taking them without knowing how to care for them.”
Hedgehogs can produce up to four litters a year, but Graham doesn’t plan to breed hers that often. Still, since the animals have a lifespan of 4 to 6 years, she’s likely to have many more babies to enjoy. And, since she and her partner are expecting a baby of the human variety in a few months, she expects to continue keeping the quill-bedecked pets for a while.
“I’d like our kid to have a chance to get to know hedgehogs,” she said.
For more information, as well as videos of Graham’s hedgehogs, go to http://sebastianhedgehogs.com/.
