litter box habits?

[animallover77]

I keep reading contradicting info on the web and in books. Are hedgies generally clean or do they just poop and pee everywhere? Are they easily litter trained? IF so, is regular cat litter suitable?

[Kalandra]

All your answers are "Depends on the hedgehog". Some are extremely tidy animals and will go in a litter box. Others cannot be bothered and will go anywhere they please.

Typically you can try to litter train them, most people recommend using something like pine litter, carefresh, etc in their litter pan instead of cat litter. If you get the clumping kind it can clump itself on sensitive parts, and the non clumping can get stuck up inside those senstive areas. Either way its not pleasant for the animal.

I have two right now. One would use a litter pan if I gave one to her, and the other tries to eat anything I put in the litter pan. Instead they both live on vellux liners and go behind their wheel. I just clean that one area each day and the rest of their cage stays really clean.

[animallover77]

Where are you in MI? Do you know any good breeders? What do you think about hedgies as pets to those with allergies?

[Kalandra]

Im in the Detroit subs, you can check out my web site for some USDA licensed breeders in Michigan, & Ohio.

For me they make a fine pet. I have skin allergies and they can cause me some irratation but only when I'm having a bad flare up anyway. If you have asthma and use wood beddings you may still have some issues, but can try using cloth liners made from a vellux blanket to get around that.

http://www.mihog.org/ is my web site if you want to take a look at the breeder listings.

[animallover77]

Have you used cell sorb before? I am trying to find the least allergenic bedding for my guinea pig. I actually need to find her a home-it's her that Im allergic to(I still sneezed and coughed when I used towels as bedding, bathed her once a week AND used a hepa air cleaner) I'm thinking that it would be the same thing with a hedgie :( too bad they are so cute and seem like such an interesting animal.

[Kalandra]

I have used cell-sorb and its a great litter type bedding. There was little to no dust, kept any odors down for a lot longer than any other bedding and kept everything dry. It had the ability to cause poopies to dry out so much that they were hard to find. The only thing I didn't like was how dry it kept things, I had trouble telling when someone was sick if they were still going potty. Other than that, give it a shot, its a bit more expensive than other litters, but it lasts 2-3 times longer.

[ferretized]

Actually when I had my little hedgie a couple years back, it learned to use the liiter box quite easily. I first realized it had this one spot it kept going to, so i put the litter box in that corner and kept some stray feces in the litter box at all times so he would learn to go there. It actually worked, but now to test it. So I moved the box and voila, he went in the litter box and not his favorite corner :).

[scoupeslave]

a lot of them are litter trained. and if not they like to dig in it