Pet hedgehogs have specific welfare requirements including large exercise areas, appropriate temperature, and respect for their nocturnal nature. Many are kept in conditions that compromise their welfare.
Pet hedgehog welfare is compromised by the mismatch between their natural behavior and typical captive conditions. Wild hedgehogs are nocturnal, solitary, wide-ranging insectivores that may travel 3 kilometers per night in foraging. Captive hedgehogs without adequate exercise wheels develop obesity and fatty liver disease that reduces both quality and length of life. Their sensitive thermoregulation means inadequate ambient temperature causes torpor that is harmful outside of natural hibernation conditions. Social housing causes stress in this solitary species. The genetic health issues prevalent in African pygmy hedgehogs — including wobbly hedgehog syndrome — reflect breeding program decisions that have traded health for appearance, creating animals predisposed to welfare-compromising conditions.