# hedgehogs



## bobble (Apr 30, 2016)

so, I was talking to a woman I work with who has recently moved to the UK from California. We were talking about pets, and then I listed all of my mine. When I said 'and a hedgehog' she literally had no idea what I was talking about. I showed her pics of my hedgehog and pictures of wild hedgehogs we get in the Uk.

she said she'd never seen one before and that wild hedgehogs dont exist in america (id never really thought about that or know if that's right) I don't think she really got why you'd have one for a pet, she did say my hedgie was cute though, so i didn't mind  

anyways it just surprised me. Hedgehogs, well, wild hedgehogs, are common in the UK and the rspca encourages people to make homes for them in your garden. There even used to be an advert with cartoon hedgehogs teaching children about road safety.

I guess I was just being blissfully ignorant 

I realise this post has no point but it just amused me that I had just assumed everyone knew what a hedgehog was.


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## Echo_21 (Dec 29, 2015)

Nope. Hedgehogs aren't native to America. She also might not have known what a hedgehog is because they are illegal to own in California.


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## SarahBella97 (Mar 16, 2016)

I'm in Canada and there's definitely none here. I never knew they existed till about 3 or 4 years ago when I saw a picture on Facebook lol


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## bobble (Apr 30, 2016)

I knew owning them in America was illegal in some states. 

just amused me because wild hedgehogs are common here (obviously you cant keep them as pets), but ap hedgehogs are still quite uncommon pets.
so when you say I have a hedgehog, most people are like 'did you catch it yourself'  and you have to explain the difference, but everyone knows what a hedgehog is. 

as I said, just being ignorant really  but never really had a reason to think about it before it.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

North and South America have no native hedgehog species. So it's more obscure here. 
A lot of people see them and think they are a baby porcupine or some unknown subspecies. That is what most people are familiar with and it totally blows their mind if you point out that a hedgehog is as closely related to a porcupine as we are.


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