This can be either fun or traumatizing for both you and your prickly friend. Some hedgies simply hate the water and will make it known. Then there are some who love it, and others who really don't care one way or the other. Either way, baths are an important part of hedgehog hygiene. You do not generally want to bathe especially young hedgehogs because there is the risk of drowning. Baths are not needed very often, just when they get really messy, or just need a good checkup and won't unroll for it.
Before you start the bathing process, you should make sure that you have a "drying area" set up. This place should be warm, away from draughts, and a place where s/he can't get into too much trouble.
Items:
A tub, bowl, sink, whatever, filled with water that should not be over the hedgehog's head. They should be able to stand and keep their face above the water. Also, the water should be lukewarm, not hot or cold.
A gentle shampoo made for puppies/kittens, or a baby shampoo (like Johnson's No More Tears) if your hedgie is dirty
An old toothbrush for gently scrubbing the quills
2 warm, dry towels for hedgie after the bath
A tiny bit of olive oil for the after-bath rinse
The Bath:
Once the bowl is filled with lukewarm water, gently lower your hedgehog in. If this is your first time with bathing this particular animal, be especially careful since you do not know how s/he will react to the water. Once the animal has been lowered into the water, take your hands out from underneath him and let him explore. Gently keep him from getting out, but make sure he knows that he isn't in for the worst day of his life. If you really feel the need to use the shampoo place a small dalop onto the hedgies back, being very careful to stay away from the head. You do not want to get any suds into the face, eyes, or ears since these are very sensitive areas. I generally just avoid the head completely. Take the toothbrush and gently scrub the shampoo into the quills. Once hedgie is thoroughly lathered up (with none on the head!), drain the water and rinse the hedgie thoroughly to get all the soap off. There should be no shampoo remaining anywhere on the hedgehog when you are done. Now refill the sink with clean lukewarm water, and put in about a teaspoon of olive oil. Swirl it around a little to break up the bubble. Place the hedgehog back into the sink and work the oily water into the skin. After this has been done, towel dry the hedgie with one of the towels. It is ok for the quills to be a bit slippery from the olive oil. Then place the hedgie in the second dry towel and take them to the "drying area." Treats are always a good thing to give after baths, it lets them know that if they're good, they get rewarded!
Hedgehog nails can get very long if they aren't worn down naturally. Mine run on wheels and all over the place, but they still need to have their nails trimmed on a regular basis. Some people use a cat and dog nail trimmer, but I find that one of those little flip-up people nail trimmers do just fine. If your hedgehog has really long nails that are curling under, then it might be best to get the dog and cat kind or a small, sharp pair of scissors. Depending on the hedgehog's temperment, nail trimming can be a breeze or it can be a nightmare.
Scenario #1: You have a very laid back hedgehog who will just stand there while you fuss with her feet. Simply hold the clippers in one hand, and gently lift the hedgehog foot up and out from under it. While holding the hedge foot and hedgie, trim the nail. You should never cut it too short. If you look closely at the nail, you can see where the blood supply to the nail stops. It's generally about 1-2mm from the base of the nail. You want to stay away from that "quick" and just trim the top off. Get them short and neat, but not butchered off. For those of you who have it that easy, you're very lucky!
Scenario #2: You have a skittish, nervous, hyper hedgehog who refuses to sit still. This can be painful for both of you, but it doesn't have to be. With these types, it is sometimes easier to have another person around to help out. If you have two people, have one person hold the hedgehog, and the other grab a foot, pull (not too hard), and quickly trim. Repeat process until all the feet are done. If you are all alone on this venture, you will have to reach under the hedgehog, grab the foot, hold the hedgehog, and trim. Sounds like a lot, but it really isn't that bad. Oh yes, and you might prefer to wear a long-sleeved shirt... There's also the idea of clipping nails while the hedgie is in the water that I will explain in Scenario #3.
Scenario #3: You have a hedgehog that will not come out of a ball, but you know it needs it's nails trimmed. Probably the easiest way to get this to work is to draw up a hedgie sink full (a few inches) of lukewarm water, and place the hedgehog in it. If it is a normal hedgehog, it will most likely unroll and concentrate on staying above water. At this time, grab the foot, and trim. You will most likely get prickled, but this method sure beats trying to sucker the hedgie out of the ball then making a grab for the foot when it emerges. That will only hurt you both.
Body: If your hedgie just has overall, dry, flaky skin, there are two good ways to deal with this.
1. Give them a bath and use the olive oil rinse suggested under the bath section.
2. Feed the hedgehog more oily foods. Not a lot, but if you add in a food that's higher in fat, like Select Diet, it can help to correct the dryness from the inside out. For some of my hedgies I just add a few drops of Vitamin E to their dish at night. This takes awhile to work, but it does.
Be it medicine for a sick pog, or a supplement for an underweight or losing weight pog, force feeding needs to happen sometimes. The best vessel for the food is a small feeder syringe, or an insulin syringe (with no needle of course). Any syringe ranging from .05cc to 3cc works best, depending on how much you need to get in to the animal and the viscosity of the medicine/food. For example: if you are giving something like Ensure (used commonly as a weight gainer/maintainer), I would reccomend .05 or 1cc's. For Hill's Science Diet A/D (only available through your vet), I would use 3cc syringes. The ease or lack of for force feeding depends on the hedgehog and the palatability of the stuff being given. Some will sit still in your hand and take the syringe with little/no complaint, and others will want absolutely nothing to do with it. Either way, I find that holding the hedgehog curled up in a towel and sort of forcing the tip of the syringe into the back corner of their lips and pushing it past their teeth gets them to open up. Once you get it in the first time, it should get easier from there. It will be pretty obvious when the hedgie has had enough, they will let you know.
Last updated on May 9, 2001.