Hedgehogs and homes

[katkine]

actually I have question....where can I have a hedgehog as a pet?I'v eheard that in Finland now the pet hedgies (African Pigmy Hedgehogs) are legal.... and also I've heard that there are already breeders... but that's about it. Does anyone else have anykind of information that could be useful? I unfortunately don't understand much finnish.. <br>Thanks for Your attention <img src="http://www.suomensiiliyhdistys.fi/forum/img/smile/grin.gif" border="0" align="" alt="">

[katkine]

I forgot to add this extract... <br> <br>It appears that Finland (now) allows African Pigmy hedgehogs as pets: <br> <br> <br>We (yes, here in Finland) now have pet hedgehogs, and its all legal too! <br>(1) it is illegal to hold European Hedgehogs as pets in Finland. They are a protected spieces, but there are some things you can do: <br> <br>o It is legal to feed the hedgehogs on your yard, as long as you don't take them home <br> <br>o It is legal to build them shelters on your yard, as long as you don't take them home <br> <br>o And (this should be ok) you can take hurt hedgehogs to see a veterinarian <br> <br>(2) apparenlty this protection law doesn't apply to other spieces of hedghogs such as the African Pigmy Hedgehog. Hence they can be freely kept as pets. There are several rules you need to obey when bringing a pet hedgehog from abroad to Finland, but they are mostly quarantine and paperwork related. <br> <br>(3) you can now find pigmy hedgies in at least one pet store (sorry, can't really say much more about this). As far as I can tell, there is now somewhere between 10 and 20 pet hedgehogs in Finland. I know one other owner personally, and know that one couple purchased one from the same petstore we got Noa from. These hedgies arrived from the USA during summer 2001. There should also be at least one breeding couple, but I don't have much info on that. <br>-- Marcin Dobrucki <br> <br> <br> <br>from: <a href="http://www.hedgehoghollow.com/faq/part3.html#3." target="_new">http://www.hedgehoghollow.com/faq/part3.html#3.</a>

[pupunen]

You can send email to Tiina Kuuteri (tiina.kuuteri@jjsoft.fi) if you want your name to be added on 'hedgie reservation list'. If I recall correctly there are 9 breeders collaborating with Suomen siiliyhdistys (= Finnish hedgehog association or something like that <img src="http://www.suomensiiliyhdistys.fi/forum/img/smile/grin.gif" border="0" align="" alt=""> ) and when they have hoglets, they'll contact the first person on the list. There are most likely something like 30 persons on the list at the moment, but more detailed information about that you can get from Tiina. You can also ask hedgies from pet shops, but keep in mind that they are not always as healthy and tame as animals bought from breeders.

[pupunen]

I just came from a pet shop as I heard that they have some hedgies there, and indeed there were two male hedgies. The shop is Helenan lemmikkipuoti in Kuopio, the animals were born last spring and came from Denmark a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have a chance to take a closer look at them as they were sleeping, but they are brown or whatever the original colour of the species is... The prize was 300 euros each.

[marcin]

There are also some other pet store which occasionally have hedgehogs for sale. Unfortunately, the association doesn't have any up-to-date records on this, so it's mostly a matter of luck. <br> <br>At least the following stores I know have had hedgehogs for sale at some point: Reporanka (chain, check <a href="http://www.reporanka.com)," target="_new">http://www.reporanka.com),</a> Paratiisilintu (Helsinki, <a href="http://www.paratiisilintu.com)," target="_new">www.paratiisilintu.com),</a> the petstore at Lippulaiva in Espoo (sorry, keep forgetting the name). Tiina knows more. <br> <br>Note: despite what is being advertized, not all hedgehogs sold in the stores are actually pigmy hedgies. Although nobody has tried to sell European hedgehogs yes, we have had a few surprises with Egyptian hedgies (cute little fellas with really long ears) and Brandt hedgehogs (India/Pakistan?). <br> <br>/Marcin