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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Breeding hedgehogs can be both a rewarding, as well as stressful undertaking. While it is a gratifying experience to help raise baby hedgehogs (“hoglets”), there are many dangers involved and problems that can arise. Specific complications are discussed at the end of this post.

If you don't know the basics of animal husbandry and breeding, you should not be considering it until you have learned a substantial amount of information. This article will provide a brief description of the breeding process and some basic information about raising a litter, but certainly should not be a sole source.


Before beginning the breeding process, it is important to have the correct mindset going in. A quality breeder does their job because they care about the health and well-being of the animals that they are breeding and can provide a stable life for the new babies. There is an immense responsibility that goes with breeding, and it should not be taken lightly. While hoglets, or baby animals of any kind, can be charming and steal your heart, these emotional factors should not be the main reason behind breeding.

If you are planning on breeding Hedgehogs, you must be prepared for the following:

(1) Willing to risk losing the mother, due to health complications
(2) Finding good, caring homes for ALL the babies. If you are undertaking this task yourself, you may need as many as 8 new cages or enclosures to keep the results of one litter
(3) Complications with the birth, whether with the mother or babies, might entail some substantial veterinary bills
(4) Rejection of the babies from the mother, leaving you solely responsible for their care


Once you've considered the points above and you still feel confident that you want to breed your hedgehog(s), we encourage you to read on about the details and procedures concerning breeding. We strongly recommend that anyone seriously considering breeding seeks out an experienced breeder, exotic pet veterinarian, or anyone with valuable knowledge that you can turn to with questions during the process.

The first aspect to consider is who will take part in the mating process. Beside the necessity of a male and female hedgehog, there are other factors to consider. Breeding of ill-tempered or genetically-related hedgehogs is not a very good idea and we would not suggest it. Choosing the hedgehogs based on age, temperament, etc. should be taken into mind, but if you are a first time breeder you may not have a wide selection to choose from. Females should not be bred until they are fully grown, around 5 months of age, because the birth will cause hormonal changes that can have permanent adverse effects on their health if they are not fully matured. A female also shouldn’t be bred for the first time if they are older than 1.5 years because the bones in her pelvic area might have fused together, preventing her from being able to give birth. Also, a female hedgehog will likely become menopausal after 3.5 years of age, ending her chances for breeding. Males should not be bred until they are about 5 months old, because they too might not be fully developed or prepared for mating. If you unsure of how old your hedgehog is, don't risk the complications of breeding or birth.


During the breeding process. Once you have your able-bodied and healthy couple selected, simply put the two hedgehogs together and nature will take-way. We have heard that most breeders seem to prefer to use the male's cage, and we suggest removing as many items from the cage as possible. Female hedgehogs sometimes play “hard to get” while males will usually lament very loudly when they encounter a female. Female hedgehogs do biologically have a `heat,' or estrus cycle, but it is hard to predict/follow. We suggest trial and error by keeping them in the same cage for a few days at a time, separating them for a few days, then repeating the process until breeding occurs. In most cases, the pair will get along quite well at their first encounter, but it is important to watch out as sometimes fights will occur.

After mating has occurred, you must separate the pair as the male plays no further role in the process. You should remove the male immediately after the female is impregnated; removing him just before birth will stress the mother significantly. Keeping the male in with the female when the babies arrive greatly increases the likeliness to have them both become carnivorous (eat the babies).

Now comes the question of, is your female pregnant? This is a very hard question to answer and usually only time will tell. The gestation period for hedgehogs is approximately 35 days, but birth can occur anywhere from about 33 - 42 days. One of the best methods to estimate pregnancy is to weigh the female every few days, and watch for a weight gain. We suggest sprinkling Hedgehog Booster over the mother’s food to ensure she is getting the proper vitamins and nutrients during her pregnancy. Closer to the birthing date, you may be able to CAREFULLY feel the babies in the abdomen-area. Another sign to watch out for is that her teats or nipples will become more enlarged, and more obvious. Typically within the last week of pregnancy, the odor from her urine often becomes noticeably stronger or she may exhibit signs of `nesting' where she may make piles of bedding material. She will also likely lose appetite in the day or so prior to the babies being born. Minimizing stress before and after birth is crucial. Keep the mother in a dark, quiet corner covered with a sheet with an abundance of bedding, food and water so you limit the need to enter her cage.

After the birth, the mother's appetite will likely skyrocket as she is trying to produce enough milk for her hoglets. Offer her all the high-quality food she desires, like Hedgehog Complete, and plenty of fresh water. Just be careful about disturbances as you go into her cage to feed or water her. If the mother appears overly exhausted, extra vitamins or supplements, such as KMR (Kitten Milk Replacement), may help. Again, it is important to minimize stress by limiting your visits to the cage and leaving the mother alone. Ideally, the hedgehog’s maternal instincts will kick in and your job is mostly done besides providing the best environment possible for the mother and her babies. Good mothers will tend to their babies, nurse them and raise the litter without problems.

Possible complications may occur after the birth. If mom seems very inactive, possibly lying out of her den, and/or not eating, she may have suffered a problem during birth. In this case, we suggest you get her to a veterinarian quickly. The longer the problem exists, the greater the likelihood that you will lose the mother in addition to the babies.

One of the most notable and common problems that arise with breeding is that the mother hedgehogs will tend to eat the babies if disturbed at all for a few days prior to or after the birth. If the mother is stressed out or feels endangered, she will instinctively turn to this act as a matter of survival to “reabsorb'' the babies. This can be a very heartbreaking and frustrating experience for new or even experienced breeders. If all the babies are lost you can try breeding again in 3 months, but if this continues to happen, it might be that the female is just not cut out to be a mom and it would be best to not try to breed her.

Some mothers simply don’t have the maternal instinct right away, but can be taught to care for their young. One way to teach a mother how to appropriately feed her hoglets is to distract her with a treat she likes, like a dried insect, while the babies are trying to latch on to her nipples. An alternate approach is to have an experienced, ‘good’ mother share the cage with the new, ‘bad’ mother. If you can time it so that the good mother gives birth a day or two before the other mother, the good mother will generally defend and adopt the extra babies, nursing them as her own. Hopefully, the bad mother will observe and use this as a learning experience so that next time she has a litter she will be familiar with how to care for her babies and be able to do it on her own. If neither of these approaches work then you will then have to remove the babies for hand feeding.

If the mother rejects the babies but doesn’t cannibalize them, you can remove them from the cage and try to raise them yourself. This is a big responsibility, creating a major obligation for you for the next few weeks. A newborn hedgehog weighing only 10 to 12 grams can have at most 1 milliliter of formula over the entire day, divided into hourly feedings. Feeding a newborn hedgehog even a little more than this will cause their intestines to impact, stomachs to bloat and distend, and their colon to rupture and they will die of septic shock.

Finally, after each litter, whether the process went smoothly or there were complications, it is important to give the mother a break to recover from the effort. We would not recommend breeding more than 3 liters per year. Any more than that might place an unnecessary strain on the female and negatively affect her health.


by: Exotic Nutrition

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