[still.erin]

My boyfriend and I are looking to buy our second hedgehog. Our first one passed away a couple months ago when he was just under three years and was riddled with cancer. Now I've read that cancer is quite common in hedgies but I wasn't really impressed with the breeder we got our Hobbes from, I emailed him with some questions about Hobbes after we bought him and never got any replies. Plus going to his website there always seems to be babies available, which makes me question how healthy the parents of the babies are. Hobbes had a wonderful personality but it was hard loosing him to cancer, and I wonder if maybe we got another from a breeder that was more careful about the parents health that kind of thing would be less of a risk. We live in north York but are willing to drive if we have to to get a baby hedgie. Also I was wondering if cinnamon coloured hedgies are uncommon. Hobbes was salt and pepper coloured and we would prefer to get a hedgie that looks different.

 

[Pandamom]

We bought our little hedgie Pippin from Heritage Pets in Niagara Falls. It took a little over an hour to get there, and worth the drive! Matt there is very knowledgeable and responsible. Check out their website www.heritage-pets.com to see who they have available for you. Sooooo sorry to hear about your Hobbes, poor little guy. Where did you get him if I can ask? We live in Oakville so we are practically neighbours !

 

[still.erin]

Heritage pets is where we got Hobbes from :/

I'm not sure why they are the only hedgehog breeder I seem to be able to find near Toronto that always has babies available.

 

[Nancy]

Heritage pets is where we got Hobbes from :/

I'm not sure why they are the only hedgehog breeder I seem to be able to find near Toronto that always has babies available.

When I read your initial post that's who I figured you'd gotten him from. What you said sounds familiar from what I've heard.

Breeders who always have babies usually have a huge number of females and/or they don't have people on a waiting list.

 

[still.erin]

So you've heard a number of not so good things about heritage pets? And is it really that common for hedgies to get cancer? The first vet we took Hobbes to said the tumor on his toe was likely just an infection and gave us a bunch of antibiotics to give him and after about a month nothing had changed. Since that vet was so expensive I found a much cheaper vet, we took him to her and she said it was a tumor and if we wanted to get rid of it she would have to take off the whole foot to make sure it didn't spread, that was assuming that it wasn't elsewhere we couldn't see. We decided a hedgies' life without a foot would be pretty terrible and he didn't seem to be in any pain, we decided to let him live with his foot. He was fine for about a year then his other big toe got a tumor and about a month after it appears he died.

 

[Nancy]

Yes, cancer in hedgehogs is extremely common. Age 3 is when we start to worry about cancer showing up but it can happen younger than that. A few pathology reports I've gotten back have called hedgehogs "little tumour factories" because it's so common.