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Top Document: Hedgehog FAQ [5/7] - Care and Understanding Previous Document: <8.4> Hedgehog first-aid kit Next Document: <8.6> Vaccinations, etc. See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge While the concept of spaying and neutering hedgehogs has been tried in a couple of places, the fact that their sexual organs are located so far internally, in what is a small animal to begin with, makes this an extremely dangerous and delicate operation, even in the hands of those who know what they are doing. The survival rate for this type of operation is below 50% from all the figures I have seen. In effect, it's not a worthwhile risk. Given that most male/female groups of hedgehogs are not overly social except during mating, (and even then it can often be a tentative truce at best) it is unlikely that spaying/neutering is anything you need to worry about. It is uncertain if it will help much in getting male/male groups to get along without fights, and it isn't needed in female/female groups. In addition to all of this, I suspect you will be hard pressed to find a veterinarian who could (let alone would) do the operation, though some do exist who have done it. As a cautionary reminder, hedgehogs as young as 6 weeks old can, and will, mate. If you do have babies, remember to separate them before this age, or you will have even more hoglets on the way, and probably not as you would want. In short, altering your hedgehog is not likely to be a worry, although Velcro would have had me believe that it might be worthwhile -- he made his desires towards the females abundantly clear, and would have had me overrun with hoglets in no time given half the opportunity (the ladies, however, defended their virtue admirably). User Contributions:Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic:Top Document: Hedgehog FAQ [5/7] - Care and Understanding Previous Document: <8.4> Hedgehog first-aid kit Next Document: <8.6> Vaccinations, etc. Part1 - Part2 - Part3 - Part4 - Part5 - Part6 - Part7 - Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: macnamara@bastet.hedgehoghollow.com (Brian MacNamara)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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Thank you!