Hedgehogs are not your everyday pets, but they can be great companions and be quite fun to play with as well. However, to receive the ultimate pleasure of having a hedgehog as a pet, you need to properly tame your hedgehog.
Taming hedgehogs are entirely different from taming other regular pets like dogs or cats due to their nature and characteristics. Fortunately, enough, there are some easy methods of taming and creating a bond with your pet hedgehog.
Methods Of Taming A Hedgehog
Down below are some methods that will help you tame your hedgehog with ease:
1. Making Your Hedgehog Familiar With Your Smell
A significant drawback in the characteristics of hedgehogs is that they do not have a powerful vision or eyesight. So, if you expect your hedgehog to remember you just by standing in front of them, you would be making a mistake.
For the reason of their weak eyesight, the animal will not recognize you just by seeing you every day. So, to create a close bond with your hedgehog or to tame it, you must make sure that it recognizes you.
One of the most effective ways to make your hedgehog recognize you is to make it remember your smell. Since hedgehogs are not very good at seeing, they are wholly dependent on their sense of smell.
If your pet hedgehog recognizes your scent, it will be easier for you to tame it and bond with it. There are certain ways to make your hedgehog get familiar to your smell.
- To begin with, you can pick your hedgehog up and play with it for a while every day. Carefully pick it up by placing your hands under its belly. After you pick it up, you can let it sit on your hand or play with it while making physical contact so that it becomes aware of your smell.
- To familiarize your hedgehog to your smell, you need to spend a certain amount of time with it regularly. Playing with it every day for 20-30 minutes will help develop better bonding between you and your hedgehog.
- A widespread mistake most people make is they wear gloves while spending time with their hedgehog. This creates hindrance in the process of bonding between the owner and the hedgehog. Some people might be scared of getting poked by the quills.However, it is better to remove the gloves once you get the hedgehog out of the cage and play with it with your bare hands so that it can get familiar with the smell from your hands.
- Another great way to introduce your hedgehog to your smell is to put an old piece of your clothing inside the cage of the hedgehog. In this way, the hedgehog will always be in touch with your smell and recognize you when you play with it.
- It is better not to apply perfume while spending time with your hedgehog because creates possibilities for it to get confused over the mixture of scents.
2. Providing Your Hedgehog With Treats
Hedgehogs tend to curl themselves up into small balls whenever they sense a threat or feel scared. To reduce this tendency, you can provide your pet with treats, so it feels safe and comfortable in your hands.
- Whenever your hedgehog curls up into a small ball, pick it up and wait till it uncurls itself. Uncurling is a sign that your hedgehog trusts you. You should reward this trust with a treat so that the trust develops and makes the bond between you and your hedgehog stronger.
- It is better to treat the hedgehog with its favorite treats. This will help to develop your pet’s affection towards you. Generally, they prefer eating insects like crickets and mealworms. However, you can give them vegetables cut into tiny pieces as well if the insects are unavailable.
- Hedgehogs have a tendency to grow obese if they get too much food or treats. So, it is better to keep the treats within certain limitations. If you are taming your hedgehog through treats, then a wise decision will be to keep it between 3-4 treats per session.
3. Creating A Comfortable Ambiance For Your Hedgehog:
Due to not being blessed with good eyesight, hedgehogs are not so sensitive towards both light and darkness. They are receptive to the overall atmosphere. So, whenever you are spending time with your hedgehog, it is essential to keep the ambiance in mind.
Because if the ambiance is not appropriate, the hedgehog might not get comfortable which will make it harder for you to bond with your it.
- Whenever you are picking up your hedgehog, it is essential to make sure that you are not casting a shadow over it because it might scare the hedgehog as it is scared of darkness.
- It is better to have the lights on while you are spending time with your hedgehog.
- Hedgehogs are quite sensitive to sound. It is important to mention that hedgehogs tend to get scared of loud noises. So, be careful and avoid loud noises. This will make the animal comfortable and make it easier to bond with you.
- You should not impose yourself upon your pet. Giving it a little time to get used to you is the wiser choice. Any attempt in trying to tame it by force will traumatize it and may lead it to dislike you. So, give the hedgehog a little time to get used to the ambiance and then start bonding with it.
Conclusion
Although hedgehogs are a little different from everyday pets like dogs and cats, with proper grooming and taming, they can become your favorite kind of pet. Rest assured, once you have gained the trust and affection of your hedgehog, it will be no less playful or entertaining than a dog or a cat.
