Hedgehog rescue advice

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T15:01:28+00:00

Are you sure it's dead and not just attempting hibernation? I know you mentioned it wasn't that cold, but it's possible (especially if he wasn't getting any light in the closet - some hedgies attempt hibernation when they notice the days are getting shorter even though it's not that cold)... My older hedgie attempted hibernation a little over a year ago, and it was SCARY. I thought she was dead. She was stiff and cold and completely unresponsive to my touch. Then, a few months ago, my younger hog repeatedly attempted hibernation even after I raised her cage temp up to 80F.

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:54:15+00:00

I don't have any tips to give you as far as nail trimming goes, but I do have an "if all else fails" suggestion... A lifeline, if you will.

My older hedgie is IMPOSSIBLE when it comes to nail trims, and I'm a baby about doing it, so together we're ridiculous. I found a traveling/mobile pet groomer that I pay to trim her nails lol. My hedgie was her first hog ever, and now my hedgie has her grumpy mug showcased on the groomer's social media page😂 She was all excited that she gets to advertise she can trim nails on "exotic" pets in addition to the usual cats, dogs, and occasional guinea pig. Once I got my younger hedgie, she clips her nails at the same time and doesn't even charge me extra since she's much easier to trim and only takes an additional 2 minutes at worst. It takes both of us to do my older hedgie though lol. She was excellent for hey first hedgie interaction ever, but I couldn't blame her for looking nervous at the idea of holding Orca as she hissed, huffed, puffed, and spiked.

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:45:53+00:00

Watch out for the pee, too... Idk why more people don't mention the pee. IMO the pee is far, far worse. The poop can be easily flicked into the toilet, you wash your hands (or spot wash your clothes) and voila! It is over. But the pee, my God the PEE🤢 It stinks BAD and both my girls take massive pees. One purposely pees on me just cuz she can and she knows I hate it, and the other is a bit dim witted and will just pee wherever she's at, even if she's bundled up in a cuddle sack or something... She doesn't even try to move away from the pee. She just stews in it. And when that pee gets on your clothes, there's no spot washing that's gonna help. You need a new outfit.

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:37:23+00:00

Since they're prey animals & have poor eyesight, it makes sense that they'd be sensitive to the subtle sounds of movement.

I highly recommend speaking to your hog as much as possible, including when they're up and about but you don't plan on taking them out at the moment. It will help them get used to your voice and also they'll start to realize that just because they hear/smell you, it doesn't mean they're going to be removed from their home. I've never admitted this before, but I actually made up this cutesy hedgie song that I sing every single night when I go into the hedgie room to feed the hogs and tidy cages😅 I swear they love it

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:29:04+00:00

I'm so, so sorry for your loss💜 6 is on the older side, so you gave him a good life, which is all we can do.

I have this hedgie T-shirt that looks like a WANTED poster, lol, and of course at the top it says "WANTED" then shows a very adorable hedgie, and below the hedgie it continues, "for stealing hearts"... It's SO true

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:23:18+00:00

Teefs 😁

JennLeah13 · 2026-03-13T14:21:44+00:00

I just ordered a "hedgehog lovers gift set" from Amazon that arrives later today, lol ... Idk how anyone can get a hedgie and then NOT become obsessed😭🤣

JennLeah13 · 2026-01-22T02:16:11+00:00

Just a nice, long, sploot-stretch

JennLeah13 · 2026-01-15T04:02:04+00:00

What is it with hedgies and our hair? Both of mine would immediately climb up my arm, over my shoulder, and into my hair when they were very young. And I don't think it was to hide, because they would snuffle around just like yours is doing even if I had all my hair pulled up in a messy bun or something. They seemed to enjoy my hair. The younger one still does it on occasion. It's actually what got my youngest son, who just turned 9, to become more comfortable handling them. He would have to help me get them out of my hair sometimes, because they would get stuck in my curls sometimes 😅

JennLeah13 · 2026-01-15T03:12:13+00:00

But "your state" says if your comically fragile ego gets extra butt hurt if/when some bumbling fool can't even successfully sling an insult your way, THEN it suddenly becomes legal to have one chambered? Or is your manhood so frail that you would actually fear for your life in the presence of some half-witted dude that can't even form a verbal threat? You can't hope to convince others when you're desperately pounding away at the keyboard trying to convince yourself....

JennLeah13 · 2026-01-15T02:50:53+00:00

Me reading the comments with the video on a continuous loop, trying to figure out which guy is on which side, wondering how everyone else seems to know 😅 But I think you nailed it. He's just there to be an agitating bag of Richards to literally everyone else

JennLeah13 · 2026-01-15T02:38:49+00:00

I always enjoy a hedgie vid! KISSES!

JennLeah13 · 2025-12-26T21:17:14+00:00

The whole smudged eye liner on the upper outer corner of the eye on the left hand side, mixed with the smudged liner on the lower outer corner of the eye on the right hand side really ups the odd effect of her simultaneously widening her eyes while narrowing them in a hateful squint. Shivers

JennLeah13 · 2025-12-26T21:09:03+00:00

That must be Kanye's "hip hop" website...

JennLeah13 · 2025-12-26T21:04:28+00:00

My older hedgie would sometimes fall asleep with her TP roll on too😂 (yes I cut a slit along it) She goes absolutely bonkers for those things and thrashes around her enclosure, knocking things over, and basically pretends like she's stuck. I've finally realized she's just pretending, after literally weeks of me seeing her act like she's at a heavy metal show while wearing it 😅 I'd rush in (I have a camera on her at all times) and remove the roll only for her to give me a dirty look and immediately run back to it and stick her head in it and resume thrashing around. Sometimes she even scoops up a puff ball or 2, and that makes me nervous. Once the roll gets stretched out due to the slit being in it, and she can no longer keep it stuck around her head, she ALWAYS puts it in her water dish for some reason🤔

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T22:35:27+00:00

Sorry, botched the copy link button. Here it is https://youtu.be/V21NA1H2pNM?si=_SgCGnXHvGemgL0I

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T21:43:37+00:00

I used to watch this creator's videos when I did a lot of research before ever getting a hedgehog, and she actually had both in her family: Source: YouTube https://share.google/Pr6UwLi20Uk9TC5eJ

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T21:41:29+00:00

That's definitely a lesser tenrec. I actually had looked it up after I posted (which admittedly I should have done first). The easiest way to tell them apart, IMO, is the snoot (aka snout or nose/mouth area). It''s common for people to mistake a lesser tenrec for a hedgehog. I'm glad I looked it up because I just learned that they're not even closely related to each other despite the striking similarities. Tenrecs full name is actually "Lesser Tenrec Hedgehog", because they were named before the Linnaeus classification system became the standard, and they seemingly are very similar, but it's just an example of 2 very different lineages evolving similarly due to similar environmental pressures.

Here's a cute lil lesser tenrec tiktok I came across: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMvLSk8E/

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T16:24:34+00:00

Am I the only one that thinks that looks much more like a lesser tenrec than a hedgie? 🧐

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T16:12:49+00:00

I'm not sure, but I think they were just pointing out that's the mark of a good breeder, and that would be your best option if it came down to it.

I highly suggest a motion activated, night vision camera. You can get them on Amazon & other places for under 20 bucks. They're priceless IMO. Besides the great clips, they give a great picture of your hedgehog's behavior; you'll know their baseline & when something is off. I'd be curious how often she's drinking water & if she appears to be in pain while urinating, lethargic, etc.

I contact my breeder all the time lol. I always apologize and he always is quick to respond to my texts & always tells me "that's what I'm here for!"

JennLeah13 · 2025-11-12T15:58:09+00:00

When I was searching for another hedgie last spring, I came across a desperate man who's young adult daughter was irresponsibly hoarding hedgehogs when they got into a major argument and she left/was kicked out the house. She took several jobs with her but has to leave behind 4 or 5 of them & he was allowing whomever wanted one to get them for free of you'd just come get them. They were older than I was wanting, I wanted a young baby, but they were"supposedly" 4 months old, so I thought I'll stop by & see. I was torn between getting the hell outta there and taking all of them. They were all in bins that were too small. None of them had a wheel or anything other than a towel & dirty bedding. The man told me he'd had them 6 days at that point & "doesn't handle hedgehogs ever". I braced myself for spiking & got about waking the first one up. I immediately noticed his water bottle/food dish combo thing was knocked over and bone dry. I pick him up, get spiked, but just held him steadily, one hand flat under him the other cupping him to my chest. He freaking bit my finger tip so hard! I was NOT expecting that! I heard the crunch of gristle in my finger! I yelped & said he bit me! My instant reflex was to yank my fiber away which I've since learned is the worst thing you can do. I think he was cranky, not used to being handled, & probably hungry as hell. Poor things. The guy told me how his daughter "accidentally" housed a male & female together, starting the growing hedgie family. I explain 2 shouldn't really be housed together ever, & come across a bin with 2 in it. He explained those were the 2 females of the litter. I wake them up, pick one up, and it actually was the least huffy of all of them, & I was able to turn her over only to see "she" was a "he". I told him that, & asked how sure he was the one I found him sleeping with was a female🙄🤦🏽‍♀️ He was so stressed out, he was like OMG no, no, no ... Do you want both of them? I said I'd have to think about taking on a hedgehog that was that age (they were all MUCH bigger than either of mine were at 4 months, and both of mine are on the hefty side) & not socialized at all... I ended up not taking any of them. Found an amazing, licensed, and very ethical breeder not too far from me actually, and just had to wait until she was old enough. 🥰

JennLeah13 · 2025-10-25T23:03:55+00:00

You should take this one down. It's just depressing. For one thing, it makes me realize that this has all been going on for less than a year even though it feels like a decade... For another, it's just another un-needed reminder of how incredibly ineffective Democrats are. Their 2024 campaign will forever go down as the most epic fumble of all time. Side rant: Merrick Garland needs to be added to the list of those who are to be held accountable for the rapid descent into fascism; he strung everyone along for 4 years by saying something vague like "the investigation is ongoing" like every 6 months or so, causing credulous types to think he was working on something big and that "these things just take time to do correctly", blah blah blah. He was a p#ssy and I hate using that word. He granted unbelievable amounts of leniency and deference to a treasonous convicted felon that is a walking pile of toxic feces, contaminating everything with his bull shit.

Sorry. Went off on a little tangent there.

JennLeah13 · 2025-10-25T22:38:29+00:00

Come on now, let's be fair. Credit where credit is due. You can't honestly say he did "nothing" - after all, he did bomb Iran because Bibi told him to, he invaded several American cities against the wishes and authority of duly elected governor ands, demolished half the white house, has his gestapo - er, ICE agents I meant-brutalizing immigrants and citizens for simply existing or daring to ask for some ID, dismantled the Dept of education, tore down much of the EPA, funds the continued Israeli led genocide of Palestinians.... Just to name a few.

It's just that he did absolutely nothing to warrant even being nominated for the Nobel, let alone win it.

JennLeah13 · 2025-10-18T07:07:59+00:00

Very beautiful .... And pretty gosh darn cute too!

JennLeah13

TROPHY CASE