03-11-2019, 04:47 AM
|
|
Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: London-Surrey, UK
Posts: 1,645
|
If you use proper sand such as prorep dessert sand which has been filtered to make safe with no added dyes, then sand baths are comepletly safe and help with things like mite prevention and getting rid of dead skin ect. Some hedgehogs will use it as a litter tray as well as a sand bath, the ones that do this shouldnt be offered a sand bath all the time. As their ancestors are from the dessert sand baths are natural for them. Depending on how your hedgehog reacts and uses it, depends on how much you offer it. Those who use it for both at the same time only get it weekly, others can have it daily/every other day, and some people feel they should only get them once a month.
Chinchilla sand isnt good to use, its too dusty, and it can contain talcum which is defiantly not good for hedgehogs, but if people want to use it they should only use is every other week. However water baths still may needed to clean them properly, becuse you know they are pets not wild animlas that are covered in who knows what.
Theres also this diatomaceous earth. Food grade. The diatomaceous earth is also a mite preventation, and by getting the food grade one it makes it totally safe if your hedgehog should end up ingesting it. This can be offered weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly depending on you.
Some people mix the two, although most people use one or the other.
Teneracs are generally only offered sand baths, and its the same giving it to them as it is to out pygmy hedgehogs.
Teneracs and pygmy hedgehog care is very similar in certain aspects and totally differnt in others, the food is the same though, so is the bonding process their enclousres are similar. And some of their needs are different.
Teneracs make just as great pets as pygmy hedgehogs, I cant remember which way round it is but I'm sure one is smaller than the other.
I am not startig a debate over sand baths and what sand to use or if water baths are wrong or not, so anyone who wants to try, I will not bother saying anything back.
|
|
|