Actually, aside from initial purchase price, I think my hedgehogs cost less to keep than my guinea pigs! They certainly made less vet trips and didn't need the level of fresh produce that guinea pigs do. Plus because they are more happy as solitary animals, I managed to make bedding go farther because only one animal was peeing/pooping in there at a time. They are absolutely adorable! There are definite pros and cons, though. They are not as intelligent or as interactive as the guinea pigs are, and how friendly they are with humans varies. We had one who was wonderful, never put her spikes up, and loved everyone (Hawthorne.) She was great- one of the best pets I've ever had! Our second hedgehog, Bram, was friendly and comfortable with me, but not with other people, even my husband. He was also our first experience with a big con of hedgehogs: genetic disease. There is an inherited condition called wobbly hedgehog syndrome that is similar to Parkinson's disease in humans. It is genetic and generally untreatable. It leads to shakiness in the voluntary muscles, lack of balance and coordination, etc. It spares the involuntary muscles (heart, lungs, digestion, etc.) so it doesn't even do the poor animals the courtesy of killing them. At a relatively young age, in the course of a few months, he went from wobbliness to circling/lack of balance to being unable to stand at all unassisted, and this in spite of the fact that we were paying for injections to reduce nervous system inflammation that would give him ever-briefer refractory periods were he was less symptomatic. Eventually once he could no longer stand on his feet without someone supporting his weight, we chose to have him put down, as his quality of life was poor and he was certainly not enjoying his life anymore. It was heartbreaking, and the fear of another hedgehog going through the same thins is probably a big reason why we don't have them anymore. After Bram, we didn't have any pets for awhile (we had also just had a baby and were quite busy!) until the breeder we got Bram from announced that she was going to stop breeding and asked if we would be interested in taking one of the hedgehogs that they were rehoming. So we got Thistle as a young adult. She obviously had not been handled a lot, and never warmed up to humans at all. We had her for six years and she never liked to be handled at all, so we fed her, cleaned her, observed her (which is fun in and of itself, they are cute animals with a lot of interesting behaviors!) but she was very hard to hold (the spine are very sharp!) and the kids wanted a pet they cut pat rather than the living, grumpy pincushion that was Thistle. So after she passed of old age, we decided to get guinea pigs because we though they would be friendlier and easier for the kids (and they are!) I'm still very fond of hedgehogs and think they're adorable, but on the whole I think I will stick with piggies, as they are more social and responsive and form a closer bond with their humans than most hedgehogs do.
