A childhood dream (raising hedgehogs) is realized

Some people dream of sailing the globe. Others hope to conquer the highest peaks. A woman in Mansfield, Ill., dreamed of raising hedgehogs (they come in 15 colors!) and, like many in this great nation of ours, she has achieved that dream. The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports:

Sarah Roberts lifted a little hut covering Bailey and her offspring and plucked the protective mother off her babies, four tiny hedgehogs that looked like a clump of cactus.

"She has two girls and two boys," said Roberts, who has made a business of raising and selling the playful, trendy and trouble-free African pygmy hedgehogs. She also shelters hedgehogs who have run into trouble in other homes where owners no longer want them, often because they've grown old or become sick.

"I figure I'm putting babies out there, so I think it's only fair," Roberts said.

A University of Illinois animal science graduate, Roberts finally realized her childhood dream of owning a hedgehog when her roommate, Jacqueline Butler, talked about getting a pet. Their apartment building banned dogs and cats, so Roberts, after researching the subject, convinced Butler a hedgehog would be perfect. Three years later, Roberts has 60 of them.

Roberts and her husband, Scott, bought their Mansfield home a year ago because it has a heated garage where she could house her herd, which is what a group of hedgehogs is called, and expand her business.

She said it wasn't easy to learn to successfully breed the spiky little creatures, insectivores closely related to shrews and Asian moon rats but not at all to porcupines. "I did a lot of research online and contacted breeders," Roberts said. "The first two litters went well. The third was a disaster."

She learned the hard way that nervous females sometimes cannibalize their litters. But Roberts, who has volunteered at the UI Small Animal Clinic since she was in seventh grade, took the setback in stride and focused on breeding laid-back, gently handled animals that will make good mothers and pets.

"It's not something an amateur can deal with," she said of the breeding stresses. "The gestation period is five weeks. We put the females with the males 10 days, then move them to a big cage for two weeks. Then we move them to a smaller cage so they'll stay close to their babies to keep them warm because they're born naked. In 18 days, they'll have their eyes open and quills."

"We also breed in cycles so we can foster babies to other mothers if their mother doesn't take care of them."

Newborn hedgehogs, which are called hoglets, are the size of a thumb. Full-grown pygmies are the size of a guinea pig. European hedgehogs can grow to the size of a small dog.

Roberts now has the longest waiting list for her hoglets she's had in three years in business. She said enthusiasm about hedgehogs as pets waxes and wanes, but they're popular in England and the trend is filtering back to the United States.

She sells online and only to individuals, not commercial buyers like pet stores. She and her husband travel to deliver the animals to buyers, or buyers come to her home to pick them up.

Hedgehogs come in 15 colors, from albino to dark brown, and Roberts charges about $150 for one. "Kids like hedgehogs," she said. "They don't bite or chew or climb. Some like to cuddle, and some beg for worms. Each personality is very different. Females do well together, although I try to keep sisters or animals of the same age together. They've been socialized since they were babies."

Photo: Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Brien Comerford]

Hedgehogs can be invaluable and fantastic pets. There are many hedgehogs in the United Kingdom. Not to long ago Brian May, the lead guitaist of Queen. used his fame and money to block the inhumane culling of Hedgehogs in Scotland. He's also trying to protect badgers from being culled in England.