My male hedgehog won't breed?

[Avi0317]

I recently placed my male and female hedgehogs together for mating. The female shows interest in the male and sniffs him and runs around the cage. The male shows no interest in the female and anytime she comes near him he huffs and puffs up. Is there any reason he would behave like this? Is there anything I can do to get him interested in her?

[Lilysmommy]

Just curious, because I'm sure the breeders on here would like to know as well, do you have pedigrees for both of your hedgehogs? I know in some countries, there really aren't pedigrees & things might be a bit different, but in the US, Canada, & UK, at least, if you're going to breed hedgehogs, you should have pedigrees for at least 5 generations back.

[shinydistraction]

Out of curiousity, how old are they?

[Avi0317]

Yes I have pedigrees on them. I bought them both from separate responsible breeders. They are both about 8 months old but the female is a little bigger than the male. This is my first attempt at breeding them and I have done a lot of research on it.

[Lilysmommy]

That's great! I'm sure one of the experienced breeders will come along sometime & be able to help (you can PM them if a day or two goes by with nothing - Nancy or Nikki). But from what I've read from them, sometimes the male won't do anything when he has an audience, he'll wait until night time before he'll get down to business. He could also be afraid of her, or just not like her! Not all hedgies are interested in each other. Nancy or Nikki might be able to say something more helpful though. Good luck!

[Nancy]

He may be more interested during the night when it's dark and nobody is watching. I've had males that seemed to be disinterested but they all produced babies.

[Avi0317]

Thanks! I guess I will just leave them alone and hope for the best!