Hedgehog Rearing and Management Methods and Technical Key Points
The hedgehog is an animal of the class Mammalia, family Erinaceidae, with a body length of 22 cm, a tail length of 2 cm, a broad head, a pointed snout, and short ears (not exceeding the length of the spines). Hedgehog skin can be used as medicine, having the effects of descending qi and relieving pain, cooling blood and stopping bleeding, and is mainly used to treat counterflow vomiting of food, abdominal pain and hernia, intestinal wind and hemorrhoids and fistulas, etc. Its heart, liver, and kidneys can also be used as medicine.
Hedgehogs inhabit thickets, and are also found near suburban villages. They like quiet, fear light and noise, hide by day and come out at night, and have a keen sense of smell. The hibernation period lasts as long as half a year, and they eat large amounts in spring, summer, and autumn, gaining weight quickly. Their food is mainly insects, and they also eat young birds, bird eggs, frogs, lizards, and melons and vegetables.
Rearing hedgehogs can simulate the wild living environment, building an enclosure connected indoors and outdoors. Indoors, prevent heat and lower temperature in summer, and prevent snow, frost, and freezing in winter, with a nest indoors for the hedgehogs to rest quietly. Outdoors, set up light-blocking cover objects, and on the ground plant shrubs and weeds, and pile up earth mounds or rockeries, allowing the hedgehogs to feed and move about. The rearing room is about 4 sq m, and the outdoor area is about 10 sq m.
In the wild, hedgehogs mainly eat animal-based food, and artificial rearing must gradually shift them to a combination of plant and animal feed. Broken rice, flour, cornmeal, green vegetables, melons and fruits, and other plant feed can be mixed with a certain amount of animal feed, cooked, and a little table salt added for feeding. Young hedgehogs can be separated and reared after weaning at about 40 days, and when raised to 90 days each can gain weight to about 310 g. The feed intake of hedgehogs changes with the stage of growth and development. A young hedgehog weighing about 100 g has a feed intake of 50 g, and a hedgehog weighing more than 300 g has a feed intake of 100 g.
To tell whether a hedgehog is strong and healthy, first look at the luster of its spines, second look at whether its body is plump, and third look at whether the spine ball is tight or loose. Hedgehog diseases include enteritis, ringworm, parasites, and so on. Some diseases are related to the rearing ecological environment and the choice of feed. A hedgehog suffering from enteritis has dull spines, walks weakly, and has diarrhea. Fresh feed can be given, and oxytetracycline fed 3 times a day, 0.25 g each time. When a hedgehog suffers from ringworm, white flaky skin can be seen peeling on its face, legs, and back, and ringworm ointment can be used for treatment. When a hedgehog suffers from roundworm disease, it shows poor appetite, drowsiness, and weakness, and santonin can be used for treatment, fed 2 times a day, 2 tablets each time.
Hedgehogs can be captured throughout the year, and because they move slowly and curl into a ball of spines when encountering an enemy, they are very easy to capture. Captured hedgehogs can be crushed to death with a stone roller, and the skin and flesh separated, or pressed firmly with the foot, and when the four limbs open slightly, cut lengthwise with a sharp knife from the abdomen to the anus, press firmly with the foot so that the internal organs, claw meat, and fat protrude from the cut, cut off the 4 claws, then step on it again to squeeze out all the fat, peel off the skin and turn it open so that the spines and hair face inward and meet, scrape clean the remaining meat and fat, and use bamboo strips to stretch the skin open and hang it in a ventilated place to dry in the shade. Or nail it to a wooden board and dry it in the shade. To prevent insect damage, a thin layer of stove ash or lime can be sprinkled on the skin and then dried in the shade, but it must not be exposed to the sun.