# HedgieCare Review



## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

As I've mentioned in some posts before, I've been working on a web site about the care of Hedgehogs. The general purpose of this site is to more or less help counter all the -bad- information that can be found on the internet, you figure the more correct information that is out there, the more it will counter the bad. HedgieCare goes over the basic care information that new owners should read, such as heating, lighting, cages and basically everything you need to do to have a happy and content hedgehog. It goes over other information such as the first few days, before you adopt a hedgehog (finding vets, emergency funds, and what you need to do with your hog). The site heavily directs people here to the Forums, because this is the best source of information, along with directing people to Lizardgirl's book (and LarryT's CS Wheels).

Now obviously I am no expert considering I've only had hedgehogs since April of 2010, its just I found a passion like I do with other animals to help the species stay healthy and for owners to have a good time with them. I made this site in part mainly because I host a domain hosting company, so it costs me nothing except my own free time to build it. But because I'm not an expert, I'm not releasing this site to the general public until its been reviewed by people here.

Spelling can be a problem with me and I've yet to filter the pages through the spell checker, but I'm looking for possible 'wrong' information I might have posted, and a few sections filled in, such as C&C cages and the Diet section, I didn't want to lift the information directly from HHC because in general, that's not cool. The information on the pages is from my own head and about 6 months worth of reading topics on here.

I thank you guys for your time in reviewing this site for me, hopefully I didn't make any major mistakes with it.

http://www.hedgiecare.com/v1/


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## I<3Hejji (Aug 29, 2010)

I am currently looking through your site and really enjoying it! I like how you have organized the information - very easy to find. Well done! I will keep looking through it and see if I find any areas for improvement, but just wanted to let you know that you did a great job!


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

I'm reading through it right now and so far I love it. Great job


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

When they are too hot if I remember the state is called aestavation, seen the space and thought I'd let you know my spelling is probably really messed up though lol


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

For C & C you could always say something along the lines of C & C stands for Cubes and Coroplast. They are made out of Wire storage Cubes and Coroplast (corrugated plastic sheets) I can't not remember for sure but I think Nancy has said that the ones that have 5 blocks across are too big and a hedgie can squeeze out. I think the recommended height of the sides is 8 to 10 inches. I think its recommended to reenforse the cage with zip ties. They are desired as a way to design a creative cage solution and can be made to any size. I'm not that great at writing but wanted to give the info I had stored and hopefully it will be a place where people can add more cause I'm sure I am forgetting things.

I went through the site and its an awesome job and I'm really glad you did it


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

I LOVE your new site & hope that many new hedgehoge owners visit! 

My suggestions would be for the "Behavior & bonding" section. Perhaps explain what a "Hedgehog Bag" is & give possible links to where they can be purchased or made. 

It may also be good to explain HOW to hedgie-proof a room.

I would also substitute "toilet paper" rolls for paper towel rolls, as the towel rolls are a lot longer. The TP rolls are perfect size & are what most people use. 

other than that - very nice job!!!!


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback everyone, its a work of love, and a hobby of 15 years now as a self taught web page designer. The only downfall is I'm "old school" in the site language wise, this is mostly pure HTML versus all the fancy stuff new sites have. The newest thing was the viewing window for all the subsections.

I plan on putting pictures with all the different sections, so there's still additions to be made, this was purely the structure and text draft. I pretty much got everything except the term for when they're too hot (was just too lazy at that point to look it up) and C&C cages which I don't know much about. I'll make the correction to the Paper Towel Tubes to "Toilet Paper Tubes". I think I said that because I use paper towel tubes, I cut them down to the size of a TP tube, its just I have a collection of them from all the paper towels I've gone through cleaning the cages.

If anyone has a site, PM me the site name & address and I'll put it in the contacts & links section, if the site sells stuff let me know so I can seperate the links into proper sections. No charge obviously for sites that sell stuff, I don't plan on doing banner space (Lizardgirl's Book & LarryT I stuck there on the side by my own accord). I'm not sure if I'm goin to offer free banner space, as that right side might get jumbled up, we'll see what happens in time.

In a few days and hopefully after I send it through the spell check, I'll probably put the site at the main address, otherwise GoogleBot/YahooBot and the other search engine bots will sniff it out and link to it.


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## leannem (Mar 27, 2009)

All the info is really great but it needs pictures along with the descriptions! I'm sure everyone here would be willing to share photos for the site. Maybe let people know what kind of photos you want and we can send some to you


*edit - i see you just posted saying you would add photos. so thats awesome!


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## FiaSpice (Jan 16, 2009)

It's funny you're tarking about your site because I was thinking about it.

I'll say a couple of comment design-wise. For the top banner, I would compress it in png or gif so the black corner are transparent. I would also center it with you main information column and space to the right, just a little bit the banner/link in the right column. I don't know if it's just me but your left menu type looks piuxelated to me.

I'm also working on a site like that in French and I also want opnion (I hope you don't min I'm doing this here)

here's a preview










I plan to have the following section

• Before You Adopt (same stuff as hedgiecare)
• Food (recomended food that can be found in Montreal area and safe treat)
• Housing (type of cage, toys, bedding, wheel, light, temperature)
• Care (bath, nail, bonding, hedgie-proofing a play area)
•Health (all heath problem from mithes to UTI to hibernation etc. how to hand feed a sick hedghog, first aid)
• oups, babies! (that says it all)
• Vets (vets link in the area the tought part because I don't know which one care good or not)
• Links

I think it covers it all. Now I just have to write/translate everything...


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

I'm totally open for suggestions. The black corners in the banner I forgot about, for years now I've been using outdated software, my image work has been done with Paint Shop Pro 7 (circa 2000), MS Paint and the site in general is put together mainly by Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 (again, circa 2000). I just got my hands on Photoshop CS3 in the past year, so I keep forgetting I can do transparent images, otherwise the original menu for HedgieCare was solid color buttons. The banner is centered to the site but the three tables under it for the links/content window/ad banners make it look off center as they're not equally spaced, namely the links / ad banner ones. The original design they were, I just hadn't noticed.

Your site looks awesome and no probs getting opinions in this thread. My offer on hosting it for free still stands, just gotta know how to run an FTP program and possibly Cpanel Dashboard.


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## FiaSpice (Jan 16, 2009)

Puffers315 said:


> I'm totally open for suggestions. The black corners in the banner I forgot about, for years now I've been using outdated software, my image work has been done with Paint Shop Pro 7 (circa 2000), MS Paint and the site in general is put together mainly by Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 (again, circa 2000). I just got my hands on Photoshop CS3 in the past year, so I keep forgetting I can do transparent images, otherwise the original menu for HedgieCare was solid color buttons. The banner is centered to the site but the three tables under it for the links/content window/ad banners make it look off center as they're not equally spaced, namely the links / ad banner ones. The original design they were, I just hadn't noticed.
> 
> Your site looks awesome and no probs getting opinions in this thread. My offer on hosting it for free still stands, just gotta know how to run an FTP program and possibly Cpanel Dashboard.


awww Dreamweaver 4, that's what I learned in college, you're really old shcool  (well I used to program un Simple text, so that's quite something!). If you ever need help with Photoshop, don't hesitate to ask me.

I have Transmit and I know how to upload stuff on an FTP, however I enever used Cpanel, but I heard about that (my ex boyfriend was a IT technician)


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

Cpanel is easy, its a general interface for your 'average' computer users, I'd say you're more in my classification of "advanced" so like me you probably won't pay too much to it. It has some add-on features for you site but I wouldn't really recommend them unless you can edit the raw data. We got guestbooks but its an older add-on version, so spam bots tend to attack and fill them up. Got forums but usually they get blown up within a few months, again old software license so people know how to exploit them. I use it mainly for creating e-mail accounts, checking HD space on an account, I think the only main thing I look at is it records your site traffic data, people's location, what browsers they're using, world location, inbound / outbound pages, whats being viewed the most, etc.

Never did sites fully in raw text, able to read and change when needed, I just find it easier to use a site. My skill is more in old school C Source.


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

Puffers,

Awesome job with the site and congrats for dedicating your time to doing this!

I reviewed what you have in General Care and came up with this:

- on climate requirement section, when you're talking about warming up a hedgie during a hibernation attempt, you could add that if after 45 min the hedgehog doesn't seem to respond, he needs to be taken to a vet asap.

- in that same section, maybe you can stress it a little bit more that unless you live in a tropical country, you WILL need a heat source. 

- in the bath section, maybe you can say something about using flaxseed oil in the water when giving them a bath, to help with dry skin.

- about scruffing... I think I've read it somewhere that scruffing can cause the hedgehog's eyes to pop out... not sure if it's true though, but maybe that's something to look at. 

I'll read the other sections and give my feedback as well. I also have a suggestion, how about talk about some common health problems and what to do in case of diarrhea, bloody feet, etc?


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

Good pointers.  

I've kind of avoided the health section mainly due to me needing to research more on health in general. I think my original plan was pointing people mainly over to the Health Forums here, because as you've mentioned for examples (diarrhea, bloody feet, etc) I couldn't say off hand how to deal with them, at least without looking it up. Everything for the most part that is on the site was pulled from my memory, which of course is from all the reading I've done here.

So far I haven't had to deal with any of those health issues with my guys, but they're an odd pair. 6 months and both have maybe needed a foot bath, I don't know how they do it, I've seen them go to bed with poop on their feet before, check them the next night and somehow they're clean.

(Oh, and scruffing, I've heard that too because I remember explaining that I had pug dogs and you can't scruff them either for the same reason).


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

One more thing -- in housing, you could add that hedgehogs are happy and better off living by themselves and it's not recommended to house two hedgies together. 

Also, you can put in "before adopting" that hedgies may not be the best pet for a child. 

And, in behavior, you could add that hedgehogs unlike dogs and cats will not do tricks and some might not show any sign of happiness on seeing you, or something like that... know what I mean? 

And one more suggestion: there's a vet list on the HHC site but I don't think it's updated, so maybe you could ask people from here to send you the contacts of their vets, and you could have a good vet list on your website.


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

re emergency funds: perhaps you might mention VPI for exotic pets. now, funds work fine if you're good at saving, if your hedgie doesn't fall sick in the first month (before you accumulate enough money), or if you start saving way in advance. well... giving more options is always good.

plus, very many Americans are not even familiar with the concept of pet insurance, while the % of insured pets in the UK is much higher...


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

Well, HedgieCare is now live on the main domain address for the masses. This includes all the suggestions you guys have provided, along with some changes.

- Lighting section was removed and combined with Climate.

- Bath & Nails became Health & Maintenance to include information on how to watch out for sick hedgehogs, signs of them being sick, and information on poop, along with directions to "The Scoop on Poop" by Nancy and the general health section of HHC.

- Misc Care section provides information about housing two hedgehogs together (and the hazards of doing it), just a general breeding information such as reasons why not to breed (unknown backgrounds, etc) and that only serious people should do it after long research and apprenticeship under a respected breeder. Also includes quick information on a surprise litter and tips on what to do (or well not to do). Also points to HHC for detailed information and seeking help from others.

- Bonding & Playtime section added, explains how to bond with your hedgehog depending on the type, playpens, hedgie-proofing rooms, and so forth.

- Addition of HedgieCare Shop, I'm not selling anything but its going to point out where to find cages, lamps, CHEs, thermostats, wheels, and if anyone here who is selling stuff wants to be listed, send me a PM with details.

Then of course all the suggestions I got here, hibernation and seeking a vet after 45 minutes, heat source needed unless you live in a very warm climate all year round, hedgie bags added to the toys & accessories section, Paper Towel Tubes to Toilet Paper Tubes, flaxseed in the bath water, scruffing and the hazard of popping eyes, that you cannot teach a hedgehog tricks and not best pet for children, and a few other things. Also includes redoing the menu images since they were pixelated.

Few minor things left, but good enough to be on the main site now. Still open to suggestions, ideas and changes, just hit me up here.

NEEDED: I want to put at least a small picture with most of the sections and sub-sections, if you got pictures that apply to these, send them to me via ([email protected]), anywhere you think a picture should be, heh.

NEEDED: I'm also going to compile a vet list, so you can also e-mail me your vet information, namely Name of Vet, Name of Doctor, Address, Phone Number, web site if they got one.

Thanks again everyone for the help.


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## Alastrina (Sep 18, 2009)

I have pictures of most of the toys you have listed in the toys & accessories section, I will try to get them together and e-mail them to you soon ^_^

I also did a DIY article for Hedgehog World on how to make your own hedgie tunnel for them to play in, and if you would like to use it on your site that would be a-OK by me. (http://www.hedgehogworld.com/content.ph ... gie-tunnel!)

~katie


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## Kenzi (Aug 29, 2010)

Is there anything about hedgehog color on your site?


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