Help with hedgehogs home

[BrigitteRich]

Hi, I have just got 2 new baby hedgehogs. I want to keep them in my greenhouse to eat all the bugs and snails. My greenhouse is 20 meters x 5 meters. I live in South Africa, so they should be OK to live outdoors? The greenhouse is fully enclosed so they won’t get out and nothing can harm them. They will have lots of place to run, lots of live insects to eat and I have 2 plastic dog kennel igloos, one for each of them. They have a low entrance, so they can get in. It will be warm, dark and dry inside. I will have a few bowls of water and some extra food. I have made tunnels and bridges for them to get around the different beds. I have a few smaller igloos for them as well.

My main concern is the height of the beds. I need to go buy fencing to put around all the beds so they don’t jump off.
How high must my fencing be to make sure they don’t climb or fall off and what fencing should I use? Is there anything else I need to provide for them?

We are loving of little heggies and I want them to be safe.

[Ria]

Have u taken into consideration the fact that these insects could have eaten pestosides, or the microorganisms they eat could hace eaten pestasides. I also assume you have not sprayed any pestasides in your greenhouse either because that can also kill them as they use their mouths to help explore they can then pick up the pestasides from your own greenhouse. These pestasides are toxic to animals to consume. So unless you know for a fact that no one around you or even further out use any pestasides you cant guarantee that your hedgehogs wont consume some and then be killed by it.

[akitka]

I agree with the previous post, pesticides would be a real concern and I don’t see how you could ensure the insects wouldn’t have come across any. Another concern would be lungworms, which many wild hedgehogs in Europe contract from eating slugs. I believe the slugs have the lung worm parasite in them but you would want to look into if that is true in your area. Thirdly keeping two hedgehogs together would be a concern, if they are male/female they will wind up breeding and if they are male/male or female/female they could wind up fighting and hurting each other. Ideally they should be kept alone.

[belties]

Are they wild ones are domestic raised pygmys?