Breeding age?

[kcarrigan10]

So I have a female who is 5 months, and I'm a little confused on the age before breeding. I've read both 5 months and 6 months, and my last female was 5 months when I bought her and the lady said she was old enough to breed if I wanted, so she was breed at about 5 1/2 months. So, I was just wondering what age most say to go with?

[abbys]

Physiologically, they are capable of breeding at 6 months, but that's still on the young side (possibly too young. Hopefully a breeder here will confirm or deny).

May I ask how much experience you have with breeding? How seriously are you considering it? If you're interested in breeding I highly recommend you hold off until you've done more research. In order to safely breed healthy hedgehogs, you'll need to know things like appropriate breeding age.

We really try encourage responsible breeding on this forum because of the risk of complications, genetic issues, etc. This forum is a great resource with lots of very knowledgeable breeders that can answer your questions and help you prepare if you're interested in breeding.

[kcarrigan10]

I do have some experience, like I said my other female was bred at 5 1/2 months, since at that time the only age I had seen was saying 5 months was old enough and the breeder I bought her from also said it was old enough and that was when she bred hers. She had her first litter in May and did great with them, she had four, and they all made it and were extremely social. I did a lot of research before that female, and before even buying her, so I do know quite a bit on it, I just got confused since I've seen both 5 months and 6 months now so I was just wondering as to which most breeders would say is the best and what they go with since so far I've gotten mixed answers from the breeders in my area that I know.

[nikki]

When I was breeding I always bred them so they delivered at about 10.5 months old so that if they didn't conceive I could rebreed them and they were still under a year old when they delivered their first litter. I wouldn't breed till at least 6 months of age because they are still growing.