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🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Hedgehog Vet-Prep Sheet

Exotic-mammal vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it and keep it with your care notes. This helps you prepare for a vet — it is not treatment.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Run the “normal, or should I worry?” check first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

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Hedgehog — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find an exotic-mammal vet — before you need one

  • Search the AEMV find-a-vet directory (the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), or, in the UK, the RCVS Find-a-Vet tool — or search “exotic / small-mammal vet near me”.
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: “Do you see small / exotic mammals?” Not every vet does. Ask the exam fee while you’re on the phone, so the cost is one less panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My vet
My hedgehog
What I’m seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Wobbliness, an unsteady or falling gait, or progressive weakness of the limbs — possible Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome; see an exotic vet
  • A cold, curled, unresponsive hedgehog (torpor) — warm it gradually and get advice urgently
  • Lethargy, weakness, loss of appetite or weight loss — vague but often the only early signs of serious illness in hedgehogs
  • Laboured or open-mouthed breathing (possible heart disease or pneumonia)
  • Not eating with collapse or vomiting — a gut blockage from swallowed carpet, fibres or rubber
  • Excessive quill loss, crusting, or red, flaky skin (mites are very common)
  • Yellow tinge to the skin/eyes or a swollen belly, especially in an overweight hedgehog (liver disease)

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm — small mammals chill and dehydrate fast, and cold makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own bedding/carrier with some familiar food.
  • For rabbits and guinea pigs, keep offering their normal hay, greens and water — a gut that stops is an emergency.
  • Bring a fresh dropping or urine sample if you can.
  • Keep it calm and quiet.

⛔ Don’t

  • Don’t give any human or OTC medicines — some common antibiotics are fatal to rabbits and guinea pigs.
  • Don’t withhold food from a rabbit or guinea pig.
  • Don’t let it get cold.
  • Don’t handle it more than necessary.

🎒 What to bring

  • A fresh dropping or urine sample, if you can collect one.
  • Photos and a short video of the behaviour or symptom — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • A note of eating, drinking and toileting over the last day.
  • The animal in a secure, warm carrier.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Enclosure
A single hedgehog needs its own secure, well-ventilated cage with a solid, escape-proof design — minimum floor space about 0.6 × 0.9 m (2 × 3 ft), and bigger is better. A large plastic storage bin or a single-level cage with a solid plastic base works; avoid glass aquariums (poor ventilation) and widely-spaced wire (legs can get trapped). A hide is essential, and the bedding should be deep enough (about 8–10 cm) in places for burrowing. They climb and squeeze out of small gaps, so a secure lid matters.
Companionship
Hedgehogs are solitary and are kept one to a cage — they don’t need or generally want the company of other hedgehogs, and housing them together risks stress and fighting.
Temperature
This is the make-or-break factor. Keep the ambient temperature at 22–32°C, with 24–29°C ideal, using a thermostatically-controlled heat source such as an under-tank heat pad or a ceramic heater. Both too cold and too warm can push a hedgehog into an unhealthy torpor (a dangerous attempted “hibernation”). Keep humidity low (under ~40%), avoid bright light, and give a regular 12 hours light / 12 hours dark cycle.
Substrate
A soft, absorbent bedding such as recycled-paper bedding, aspen shavings, alfalfa pellets or hay, deep enough (8–10 cm) in some areas to burrow. Avoid rough, dusty or scented substrates, and never use loose string or fluffy cloth fibres — hedgehog toes and legs get tangled in them.
Enrichment
Healthy hedgehogs are very active and travel a long way at night, so a solid-surface exercise wheel (never an open-rung wire wheel — legs get caught) is strongly recommended. Add tunnels, safe climbing, hides and toys, hide food for them to forage, and let them out for supervised floor time in a safe, warm space.
Diet
Feed a commercial hedgehog or insectivore food as the base; if you can’t get one, a high-quality weight-management cat or dog food is an acceptable alternative — ration it (roughly 3–4 tsp a day) because hedgehogs get obese easily. Add a little varied moist/protein food and insects daily (mealworms, gut-loaded crickets, cooked meat or egg, low-fat cottage cheese, a little canned cat/dog food) plus a small amount of vegetables/fruit. Hide insects in the bedding to encourage foraging. Never feed raw meat or raw egg (salmonella risk) or milk (it causes diarrhoea). Fresh water at all times; introduce any new food slowly, as they’re fussy about change.
Supplements
Not necessary for a hedgehog on a balanced commercial diet — don’t add vitamin or mineral supplements unless a vet advises it.

⚕️ Small mammals are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so any change in eating, droppings, drinking or behaviour is urgent — in rabbits and guinea pigs, not eating or passing no droppings for 12–24 hours can be a life-threatening emergency (gut stasis). They also chill and dehydrate quickly, so keep it warm. Tell the vet about your diet and any remedies you’ve used, and ask for exotic-mammal-safe medicines and doses — several antibiotics that are routine in other pets are dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see small / exotic mammals? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?