My daughter is crazy about hedgehogs. I must be crazy too, because I'm letting her get one. I've read a lot about them (and so has she) but I was wondering if anyone here had any personal experience with owning one.

As a matter of fact, I have! I owned two at one time. One was named Sonic, of course, the other Spike. Incredibly cute, incredibly difficult to really handle. And they usually would like to nip at little fingers. The best way to do it, would be to build them an enclosed living space outside. And you have to enclose it with chicken wire, which needs to be buried quite a ways into the ground, as they are furious burrowers. Think of a tortoise enclosure. Lots of area to run, lots of area to dig, and lots of hidey holes.

And, they will hibernate. I found this out the hard way one day, when I didn't see any evidence of them running around during the night. By the way, they run all night. Anyways, I found one in his little terracotta pot, all rolled up in a ball, and not responding. I freaked out, took him to the vet, and the vet, after a very quick look over told me: "You woke him up. He was hibernating." Sheesh. Returned him to his pot.

So really, they are cute, but you can't interact with them much, those spikes hurt! And, they will roll up into a ball and puff themselves in and out, like a balloon inflating and deflating, pushing those spikes into whatever is close.

I agree - they are very cute, but aren't very good pets, because of the handling issue.

We know people with a hedgehog and it's just in the cage all the time because the kids are scared of it.

Can you not talk her into a rabbit instead?! (which, BTW, can be house-trained and can be nice house pets)