Keep It Clean

In the past, there have been a few cases of salmonella attributed to hedgehogs. Salmonella is the result of unclean conditions or spoiled food. Your hedgehog friend has no more chance of developing salmonella than any other animal kept in similar conditions.

These suggestions should prevent any problems:

ALWAYS keep your pet's home and food preparation areas clean
ALWAYS remove food which may spoil after an hour or so
ALWAYS wash your hands after handling your pet (or any animal)
NEVER give your pet raw meat or eggs

great post xx

I have to clear out Hercules's viv every day thoroughly. He has a habit of emptying out his dish and then carrying bit's of food about. Little monkey he is! X

poppets is garenteed to tip her water bowl over her biccies....grrrrr

How often is it recommended to clean bedding etc? I have a vivarium and after one day it's pretty stinking in there. I use paper and paper wool flakes but it's very messy to clean up. I'm really new to this - have had my baby APH for 5 nights now and we are just starting to get to know each other. I'd like to keep the viv smelling fresher but without compromising her natural environment/sent etc. Any advice on what is generally acceptable for cleaning time-scales and any info on easy to clean bedding would be great?

i wash my liners about twice a week but change their litter paper daily....
i wash the viv itself down once a week.

Hi Nobby

I tend to use liners as most of my hogs are litter trained .. as for any of my babies i use either finacard or carefresh .. pop a litter tray in and baby should start using it as Hedgehogs are naturally quite clean .
I tend to do spot cleans daily and full clean out twice a week . which includes .. washing out vivs and dishes ... and changing liners or finacard .x But like i said all of mine are litter trained x

I change my liners on a rota - so three get changed every day and I change the kitchen roll daily and hoover any crumbs off the liners daily x

Hi nobby,

I have 5 hoggies to clean. Every day i change their Kitchen roll and clean their foid and water bowls. Every 2 days I change their liners, some of them would probably get away with every 3 days and 2 of them (Puddin' and Ernie) once a week as they are quite clean. If I'm washing a couple of liners though, I may as well fill the machine and wash them all

I give their vivs a full clean, usually a Saturday or Sunday, depending on which day it falls on.

4 are kept in vivs and one is in a zoozone. I find that the zoozone seems to smell cleaner, but I think this is due to the air circulating better.

All of them have fleece liners and I find these are lovely and snug for them and relatively easy to keep clean.

All mine are completely litter trained and so if they start to smell, it is only because I've been late changing the kitchen roll in their trays.So every morning I put clean kitchen roll in and clean their wheels, if I'm a bit late for in getting ready for work and leave them until after I get home, this is when they would start to smell. I just make sure I do it every morning and that way I don't have a problem.

I would highly recommend fleece liners, wheels with a tray under them and kitchen roll in the tray. Mine also all have snuggle pouches (made of fleece) inside their plastic pigloos to hide in.

Welcome to our happy little forum. Any more questions, them please just ask

How old is your little hoggie? Looking forward to getting to know you.

xoxox

Thanks all for the speedy responses - carefresh sounds good until little Dotty becomes litter trained - if she does of course. Thanks again all. xx

Nobby where about in Berkshire are you , your in my neck of the woods i think i may have spoken to you on facebook ?

Thanks Melody - I really like the idea of fleece liners so will try this out. Dotty has a little pouch, which is fleece inside, that she has taken to sleeping in. This is quite good as she's pretty nervy and I can take her out and have her with me whilst watching tv etc. and she's pretty calm when she's in this and quite happy to have her head slightly hanging out just looking in my direction. So far trying to pick her up is often sending her in to a frozen, prickly, panting mess so not overdoing that just yet as it seems to really distress her. She's quite fearless when she needs to do a poo though and somehow manages to completely overcome her fear and come out to poop all over me. Saying all that I have had her running around me and have been able to pick her up on the odd occasion, but mainly when she's been in a play pen and in an extremely curious mood.

Thanks for the friendly advice.x

Hi Lou, I'm just outside of Reading - near pangbourne if you know the area? x

Do you no Gill ?.. We arent to far from Pangbourne as i think she said as i was local i could maybe help you out your always welcome to come visit my babies x

No I don't know Gill I was given her number by Valley Vets in Pangbourne as I'd asked them for some health advice initially. They recommended Gill and she recommended giving Helen a call and signing up on here. So far best advice I've come accross yet. I'd love to see your babies, where are you? x

Im in Reading hun ...

Oh that is close. That would be great some time to pop in and see them, see your set up etc. Thanks Lou x

your welcome i have inboxed you hun x