Bringing your hedgie along with you to the beach sounds cute. While you adore the idea of treating your hedgehog-like pocket pets and taking them to the beach, you should ask if hedgehogs are comfortable with an outing to a beach.
You can take your hedgehog out to the beach without having to worry about any health implications later. Hedgehogs can walk on sand without issues and they can swim in the water, but you should always keep an eye on them, as they don’t normally enjoy either of those activities.
In this article, you’ll learn the conditions necessary for taking your hedgehog to the beach. Since the beach is usually all water and sand, you’ll learn how to carry and attend to your hedgehog to avoid choking or drowning them.
Can Hedgehogs Walk on Sand?
There’s a lot of sand at most beaches. Before taking your hedgehog to a beach, you should know how well they fare with sand or if the sand is going to cause a problem for the hedgehog.
Generally, your hedgehog should have no problem with the sand on a beach. They aren’t particularly known for showing adverse reactions to sand, and unless the sand is infested with chemicals, your hedgehog should be fine walking on sand.
Some experts opine that bathing in the sand may be beneficial for your hedgie. Instead of a standard water bath (that most hedgies hate anyway), most people let their hedgehogs bathe in dust. While it may not be the best medium for dirt removal, it works, at least to a certain extent.
Being at a beach means you don’t have to worry about your hedgehog spilling dust all around. They can dust bathe all they want without restrictions, but you should also try keeping an eye on them.
Your hedgehog may roll, dig, and walk on the sand on the beach. These are all completely healthy and natural, as hedgehogs can walk on sand perfectly without issues.
Can You Take a Hedgehog Around with You?
Before getting a pet hedgehog, it’s important to note that they are not like dogs or cats that you can carry around at will.
For one, hedgehogs are nocturnal; they sleep in the day and are most active at night. In short, the times you need to go around coincide with the times when your hedgehog should be sleeping in its cage. Taking it around at that time will be very uncomfortable for your pet.
You can take your hedgehog around occasionally, but that shouldn’t be either regular or frequent. They also need regular sleep for survival, and taking them around with you deprives them of it.
Also, hedgehogs are somewhat territorial and they enjoy being in a familiar environment. Constantly moving them around will also constantly change their environment, making them stressed and confused.
Hedgehogs aren’t suited for the harsh weather that you can endure casually. Hedgehogs have unfavorable reactions to extreme weather. The last thing you want happening is your hedgehog catching a cold due to an unplanned sudden drop in temperature.
Summarily, you can take your hedgie around once in a while, but you don’t want that to be regular. Before taking your hedgehog on an outing, think about how you’ll feel if someone woke you up in the middle of the night for an outing.
Do Hedgehogs Like to Swim?
When taking hedgehogs to the beach, you may be considering bringing them along into the shallower parts of the sea to have them feel the water.
However, this may not be the best idea. While hedgehogs can swim, most hedgehogs don’t enjoy swimming, and they will try to get out of the water as soon as they get into it.
If you bathe your hedgehog regularly, you should already know this. Immediately a hedgehog is placed in bathwater, they start trying to climb out of the water. Since the water at the beach is the same as their bath water (only saltier), the reaction will almost be the same.
With that being said, it’s important to note that not all hedgehogs hate water. Most hedgehogs can swim, and with patience, some hedgehogs can even grow to like swimming in water.
You can tell if your hedgehog is of the swimming type by its behavior while bathing. Since hedgehogs need a regular bath, it’s quite easy to tell if they enjoy staying in the water, or if they freak out at the thought of a bath.
While hedgehogs don’t necessarily like water, they’re mostly good swimmers. Since they need to navigate water bodies quite frequently in the wild, hedgies can swim quite well, even if they’ve never had any prior experience.
If you’re taking your hedgehog with you to the beach, you should try to keep them from swimming. Most hedgehogs don’t swim for fun as humans do, and they can poop in the water when they panic, polluting it.
Can You Take Your Hedgehog to the Beach?
Before taking a hedgehog to the beach, you should know if they are good swimmers, in case they wander off into the water. You should also know if you should take them out and if they like walking on sand, as most of the beach is sand anyway.
Since we’ve answered all three of those questions, we can easily tell if bringing hedgehogs to the beach is a good idea.
Hedgehogs are good swimmers when necessary. In the wild, they may have to swim long distances every day to find food. However, this doesn’t mean they like water or they enjoy swimming; they do it only out of pure necessity.
When taking your hedgehog to the beach, you may want to take extra precautions that they don’t wander into the water. You should also inspect all of their activities closely, and if possible, keep them in a cage.
Of course, the best line of action is keeping your hedgehogs at home. Taking your hedgehog to the beach is unnecessary, as they don’t enjoy anything that happens there, and it also interferes with their nocturnal schedule.