Here at GLHH we breed African Pygmy Hedgehogs. Hedgehogs are generally nocturnal by nature, meaning they are asleep during the day and awake at night. In captivity however they can become diurnal, but this is no cause for concern.
Hedgehogs are also solitary animals. They do not seek the companionship of other hedgehogs, except for mating. We strongly discourage cohabitating hedgehogs. This often leads to unnecessary fighting, injuries, and surprise litters.
Bathing
Hedgehogs do not require constant bathing, generally speaking, they are pretty clean animals. Over bathing can dry out their sensitive skin and cause irritation. Most only require a bath once a month, sometimes less! We put our hedgies in the bathroom sink with warm water up to their belly. Use a toothbrush and a mild baby wash like Aveeno Baby to brush down their quills and to give their feet and nails a nice brush. Between the full baths, you can give foot baths to get rid of the “poop boots” from running on their wheels.
Clipping Nails
Nail clipping is intimidating with any animal, but with hedgehog's spines, it is even more so! The most important thing is to have a sharp pair of nail clippers. The clippers that we have found to work the best are baby nail clippers. The second most important thing is to have a plan of attack. For most of our hedgehogs, we can hold them with their backs to our bellies. Then, we grab a foot and clip. Other hedgehogs do not like this and wiggle A LOT or ball up. For these hedgies, we clip while the hedgehog is in the bath. We fill the sink with water up to their belly, grab a foot, and clip. Your hedgehog will not want to ball up due to being in the water. We have had great success with this method with our more difficult hedgehogs.
When cutting your hedgehogs nails you need to be aware of where the quick of the nail is. The quick is the pinkish-colored part of a nail. Cutting the quick will result in bleeding. With hedgehogs being wigglers, there is always a chance of getting a hedgehog's quick on accident. It happens, we understand! We recommend keeping Super Clot on hand in case this happens. I believe we found it at Walmart but any farm supply store would likely have it. Super Clot stops the bleeding, numbs pain, and disinfects.