[BigRob]

Hello

I have stumbled onto here in my online ramblings and was amazed by all the info. I have a large Long Eared Hedgehog called Hercules and he has quite a personality. He can't stand men and hisses, huffs, puffs and general dislikes me. My wife on the other hand is a favoured friend and he will take food from her quite happily and he sits for hours while my two year old chats, sings and harassess him.

I brought him from a petshop which gets all kinds of strange critters in, where he had been sat for a year and a half apparently, they said if he had stayed there much longer he'd have been made a store pet. I thought his cage was empty and I was looking at the Jerboas next to it when I spotted his little face poking out of his house and grabbed a staff member. I put the deposit down and checked out what hedgies needed. They gave me a sheet of "instructions" but a quick google and asking some questions with the right people got me thinking most of them were pretty off. They were feeding him vast numbers of mealworms and those dead pink mice you give snakes, he is much happier on hog food.

I know alot of people on here have the small hedgies but I wondered if anyone else has one of the Long Eared ones?

Edit: Some Pictures

 

[BigRob]

The first one was taken a few weeks ago through the glass of his house by my wife, If I tried to do that he would put his front bristles up between his ears and shnuffle at me.

The second one was taken a couple of years ago. He has gone quite grey round the nose now, the shop said they had him for a year and a half and I've had him for almost four so he is getting on a bit. Still runs enough to break a wheel every 6 months or so

Quite possibly the cutest thing about him is when he curls up because his ears actually roll up like little roller blinds and tuck in. Very adorable!

 

[BigRob]

These are from a quick reel of pictures we took just after we got him on 06. After a year and a half of minor handling in the petshop he is not very "tame" and doesn't tolerate much handling. I did try and give him a bath when I first got him because the shop recommended it. He was most unamused!

 

[BigRob]

I've got a few more, stills taken from a video. I put the camera on and left it in his cage. He got very curious and tried to break it open with his paws.

He uses those legs to run all night in his wheel, he has a big rabbit/guinea pig branded wheel but he wears the plastic out and after a few months they just break. When he isn't running he has various balls and tubes he likes to kick around. He had one of those treat balls you fill with food and the food falls out gradually as they play, but he ripped it open, he is very strong. If he is having a bad day and is in a sulky mood he will pick up his ceramic foodbowl and throw that too which makes a really loud bang, perfect at 3am!

 

[BigRob]

I got him from Porton Pets and Aquatics in Wiltshire near Salisbury back in 2006. He was inbetween a cage of Jerboas and a cage of Giant Jerboas and I wish I could have got them too because they were so ugly they were adorable.

It's quite a good petshop but the staff are a bit muppety. They usually have a wide range of exotics in but the prices are high, they have a tenrec (labled as Tenricks Hedgehog) but they want £300 for him. I paid that for Herc and got his big glass tank and all his toys included (the tank was selling on its own for £350, they wanted him gone). I just couldn't believe no one had brought him, he is such little hassle.

 

[BigRob]

"Little Hassle" means he is not a difficult pet to look after. If somethings continuously difficult and tricky or annoying then its a hassle, rather like keeping fish and having to worry about the water temperature and stuff all the time.

He has never been ill (although I have heard him sneeze a couple of times which is super cute), he doesn't cost alot to keep, he is constantly cute and doing fun stuff at all times of day, he isn't a problem to clean, he doesn't make a break for the hills as soon as you open the cage, he doesn't bite, he is no problem really. The only other pet I have ever encountered like this is a Guinea Pig.

 

[BigRob]

Gorgeous Pammie, He looks like a darker version of mine, does he have the white belly fluff?

You have the same wheel as I do too, does yours break them regularly by running too much?

 

[BigRob]

Aww he is cute, do you know how old he is?

We can only kind of guess with Herc because the pet shop were not sure. We think he is at least 5 and he has started going grey round his nose and mouth. He breaks them by running too much. I tape the wheel down because otherwise it ends up bouncing round the cage and making a terrible noise. Once he managed to bounce it right round against the side of the cage and he ended up trapped inside it, not amused in the morning.

Herc is very much a "look at" pet, he is not amused by the idea of handling. He does have a cute habit of curling up one side and bristling up while the other side away from me stays uncurled so he can see and hear.

 

[BigRob]

Yes since they live in the Middle East usually. I keep Herc in his glass viv thing at room temperature and he has a heat pad under his house where he sleeps and one that runs the whole back of the cage. The shop tried to flog me a big old heat lamp but I wasn't sure if it would bug him, my wifes geckos hated thier heat lamp and it dried their skin out.

He seems happy enough, the mats warm the glass and he likes to flop out on his house one, I did try giving him some nice bedding and some hay to sleep in but he took it all out and dumped it in the litter corner, he prefers to flop straight on the glass. I have checked it, its nice and warm, not too hot

He will alternate during the day between his house and sleeping up against the back wall behind his wheel or if its a really hot day, on his concrete slab that I put in to help stop him filling his water bowl with woodchips and poop. The cage traps heat nicely (although it is well vented with a mesh roof and side panel) although its really cute to put a hotwater bottle against it sometimes because its warmer than the pad so he will come out and snooze next to it until it gets cooler, then he will look grumpy and go back in.

 

[BigRob]

We looked after a baby hedgie we found on our patio after the first frost of the winter about 10 years ago. It was far to small to hibernate so it got taken to the vets to be de-fleaed and wormed, then it lived in a cardboard box in our bathroom for the winter, getting fat on tasty dog food and treats.

Come the spring a huge and healthy hog was released into the wild as per the instructions from St Tiggywinkles (the famous hedgehog hospital).

Euro hoggies dont need heat, but they like to hibernate when its too cold.