# Too old too breed



## Beasty (Mar 15, 2015)

Hey everyone, I have a question for some of the really experienced owners. I have a friend who has a little hog and hes not sure about her for sure age but estimates that she is around 2 or so. Well he wants to breed her and that worries me because he is not experienced and I've heard that's really too old for breeding. can anyone give me some accurate info to pass along and hopefully discourage this.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Check the breeding section. After a year a females pelvis has fused to where babies will not be able to pass through the birth canal. By breeding a female for the first time at the absolute minimum he risks any savings he has going to a c-section and the larger risk of losing his female and any babies she would carry.


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

Well, I'm not a breeder, but I can share what I know.

A female hedgehog should have her first litter before the age of 1 year. After that the pelvis fuses together and delivery becomes difficult or impossible and increases the risk to the life of the female. Females tend to be done breeding around the age of 3. Either they don't let the males near them anymore, or they've just hit that age where they can't make more babies.

Why does your friend want to breed? Does she have a pedigree on her girl and the male she wants to breed with going back at least 5 generations that's free of genetic conditions like WHS? He needs to be aware that breeding is not something that should be done just to have cute babies or to make money. If it's for money, if he does it ethically, likely he'll lose money on the deal. If it's for cute babies, doing so without a pedigree risks putting more hedgehogs out in the world that could be carriers of WHS and other diseases. It also risks his hedgehogs life as well as the life of any hoglets born. Not all hedgehogs make good mothers and she could wind up killing some or all of the litter.


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## Beasty (Mar 15, 2015)

You guys are amazing thank you for the info and I will defiantly pass this along I am ethical and love these little beasts and don't want any harm to come to any of them, I'm a huge advocate of adopting the ones already out there who need good homes.!


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