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I have a 13 year old daughter that really wants a Hedgehog. I know nothing about raising them and while she is mature for her age, I am not sure if it's a good idea.
Google all about caring for hedgehogs. Hint: This will not be the snuggly-thing she might think it is. Find out why she wants a hedgehog and then do research together.
My sister bought her husband a hedgehog for Christmas, because he really wanted one. It spends all of it's time burrowed into shavings and has now begun menstruating and running its sexual frustration out on the wheel in its cage, covering it in blood, with pine shavings sticking to it. It's menstruating because of his pheromones turning her on. Good times.
Some times, it's important to understand WHY we want something.
I used to have several hedgehogs. They're not the greatest pets. They're nocturnal and won't get up until the house is quiet and dark. Then they run all night on the wheel, and in the morning it's very dirty. (They don't run because of sexual frustration, in the wild a hedgehog would cover several miles each night, so they need a wheel to run for their health). Some hedgehogs will bite, and they won't let go, so their teeth come out in your flesh. It's also not uncommon for people to get hives from holding hedgehogs.
We only had one hedgehog who actually liked people. He was very relaxed and funny, never bit, would wake up to see us. But he was also an escape artist and he'd get out of the cage most nights and either get into my kids' bedrooms and play with their toys, or look for a way to squeeze into our female hedgehog's cage. They leave a poop trail wherever they go, so we were always able to find him. But he did manage to get into the female's cage, and she got pregnant, and raising baby hedgehogs is difficult and heartbreaking because the mom will panic if she hears any kind of loud noise, and sometimes she eats part of the babies,not always enough to kill them but enough that they won't survive with any sort of normal life. I couldn't stand keeping hedgehogs after that.
Had a hedgehog as a child and it was okay, but like a lot of kids I sorta lost interest once I realized they slept through the day and didn't do as much as I anticipated. Once that happened my mother "adopted" my pet and kept him until we found another family much more invested and willing to care for him.
Ask your daughter why she want a hedgehog in the first place. A lot of times kids want something that pops in their head or something they see someone else has and think they absolutely need it without actually understanding what it entails. A hedgehog isn't a normal cat/dog like pet, it's definitely nocturnal so pretty quiet and removed when your daughters awake and most likely super active and on the wheel when she's asleep.
You can hold them and let them play in an enclosed space, but it's not going to be super cuddly all the time and biting is a way they communicate so expect that to happen regardless of how long you have them. They don't learn tricks or do much beyond sleeping, eating, and running so your daughter might find that boring after a while.
I will say your daughter is at the right age where she can take on the responsibilities, but you need to make sure she actually wants to take them on rather then dump the responsibilities on you/someone else who didn't ask for a hedgehog. Have her research and learn about hedgehogs, their lifestyles, and then have her draw up a plan for how she'll care for the animal for it's entire life (they typically live 3-5 years). That way no matter what she knows what she's getting into and can fully understand her responsibilities.
Wow - they really sound like NO fun at all! It's hard enough to get kids to take of a cuddly fun pet, much less something as messy and antisocial as hedgehogs sound to be.
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Good point! Hedgehog was capitalized!
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