How to Pick Up and Hold a Hedgehog

hi everyone I am back today with Miss teasel and in this video I'm just going to be showing you how to pick up your hedgehog picking up your brand new Hedgehog in many cases is way easier said than done and can be a very intimidating experience for the firsttime Hedgehog owner as opposed to other small animals hedgehogs count with a very powerful defense mechanism their spines all over their back which they will use to discourage anything from coming near them to protect themselves hedgehogs will curl into a ball raise their spines and start hissing and popping to essentially try and prick you with their spines the following Clips are an example of a hedgehog hissing and raising its spines for a new Hedgehog owner this Behavior may be a bit scary and discouraging because you see this hissing ball of rage that doesn't want to have anything to do with you however they don't do this because they don't like you they only do it because they're scared if you think about it they were taken from their home in many cases from their litter and are now exposed to a multitude of new noises and smells that they're just not used to it will take some time for your new Hedgehog to get used to their new environment and you'll have to make sure to handle them every single day to get them used to you now in this video I am just going to show the first step in handling your hedgehog which is to pick them up the trick to picking up and holding a hedgehog is to pick them up from underneath hedgehogs have spines over the top but they're Underside is first so you want to keep your hands underneath them at all times when you're holding them to avoid the spines now I'll go ahead and put tasel back in her cage so I can show you how I pick her up from the bedding to pick up a hedgehog you have to make a scooping motion you place one hand on each side of the Hedgehog and then move your hands together as you move them underneath your hedgehog to scoop them up and get them off of the bedding the hardest part is to get them off of the bedding because they will wedge themselves in there pretty well so that you can't get access to their Underside after you get them off of the bedding they will usually start to calm down a little bit and get a little bit curious maybe they'll even start exploring a little bit which is good um teasel in this clip started licking me I'm not sure why probably because she could taste the veggies that I gave to the piggies anyway not all hedgehogs may be as well behaved once they're on your hands I know that teasel wasn't this way in the beginning but you just have to keep on picking them up every day and holding them it's a matter of getting them used to you if this method of picking up a hedgehog is a bit intimidating because you have a very aggressive hedgy then you can try picking them up with some bedding which will serve as a barrier between your hand hands and the Hedgehog you do the same scooping motion but you make sure to pick up some bedding with the Hedgehog once they calm down a little bit and you feel more comfortable holding them you can try to slowly get rid of the bedding in Your Hands by moving the Hedgehog from hand to hand now if you're a bit scared of picking them up with your bare hands you can also use a towel a shirt or a rag to pick them up as well right here I'm just using a piece of fleece that way your hands won't come in direct contact with your hedgehog you can continue to use a towel or rag or a piece of fleece to pick them up until you feel a little bit more comfortable handling them and can move on to pick them up with your bare hands now there are some people that like to use gloves to handle their Hedgehog I really wouldn't suggest using gloves all the time since your hedgehog won't be able to smell your hands and get used to your scent hedgehogs have very poor eyesight and are extremely sound and scent oriented so it's fun to use gloves in the beginning but as you get more comfortable holding them try to use your hand so they can get used to the scent of your hands all right guys so I guess that is it for now I hope that this video was helpful to anyone that is thinking about getting a hedgehog in the future as I mentioned earlier make sure to hold them every day it may take time to get them tame it could take days weeks months maybe even years with teasel it took me a full year to get her tame and comfortable while I was holding her while with my previous Hedgehog it was only a matter of days before she was comfortable around me so it really depends on the Hedgehog's personality some people give up with their Hedgehog when they see that they don't come around very quickly but if you leave your hedgehog in their cage all the time they're never going to get used to being handled and you also wouldn't get to enjoy the benefits of having a pet and that is it for now thank you so much for watching and I will see you guys in my next video bye

Channel: SnowdropHedgie

Views: 2,815,592

Keywords: pick up an aggressive hedgehog, hedgehog, cute, adorable, hold, tame, handle a hedgehog, hiss, pop, clicking, hedgie, HedgiePiggyLove, SnowdropHedgie, spines, quills, curl, Teazel, african pygmy hedgehog

Id: G1omwD9mpyE

Length: 5min 16sec (316 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2013