How to Wash a Hedgehog:
1. Thoroughly clean kitchen or bathroom sink with a mild soap (like Ivory dishsoap) and hot water, rinse thoroughly.
2. Fill sink with about 1.5-2? of warm water – not too hot, not too cold.
3. Mix into water about 1 quarter-sized amount of tearless shampoo into the water to make bubbles.
4. Fetch your hedgehog and gently put them into the water. Be sure, if they’re in a ball, to not put them into the water with their face-side down…They may drown or get water in their lungs.
5. Once they hit the water, they should come out of their ball immediately and are usually only concerned with finding a way out. So, their quills are back and relaxed for you to be able to work with easily.
6. Often, they’ll have “frothed” themselves during the week with any new and interesting food you fed them, so they may have “spots” on their quills of any color from the food.So, if you feel after soaking for a few minutes in the water, that these spots need some extra work to get them off, put some extra tearless shampoo on the nail brush and gently rub the quills in one direction to get them off.
7. Be sure to wash their bellies, feet and private areas gently with your fingers or washcloth.
8. Take the washcloth and gently clean their face, trying to keep too much water out of their ears.
9. Pickup your hedgehog and hold them while you empty the sink of the bath water. Quickly rinse the sink of excess bubbles and dirt.
10. Making sure the water is at the right temperature coming out of the faucet, I then rinse the hedgehog directly under that water, ensuring I move the quills around to get all shampoo off of them.
