Our Hedgehogs
This is our "array" or "herd": the hedgehogs of Volcano View. They are not just "breeding stock" used to produce babies. These hedgehogs are our special pets and part of the family. We know and love each of them as individuals, with distinctive personalities, quirks, and needs. The welfare of our hedgehogs is the top priority. We believe that healthy, happy parents are the key to making healthy, happy babies.
We have put considerable time, effort, and resources into developing our herd and could not be more proud of it. Our goal is to ultimately combine several important traits within each hedgehog, and to have as much diversity as possible in bloodlines and appearances without sacrificing those necessary elements. We consider several factors when choosing hedgehogs for our breeding program:
1. Above all else, health and longevity are most important. This includes the physical health of the individual as well as the genetic health. Our hedgehogs come from reputable, respected breeders and have at least 5 generations of pedigree - in some cases, we know the lineage going back 10-15 generations or more. We use the International Hedgehog Registry and a network of other breeders to verify that the lines we use for breeding are clean of genetic illness like WHS. We also look at the parents and grandparents, including their health and lifespan whenever possible, to try to avoid breeding hedgehogs with a genetic predisposition toward cancers or obesity. We do not breed any animals with physical abnormalities. Although it cannot be guaranteed because we usually purchase new hedgehogs when they are 2-3 months old, we do our best to choose hedgehogs that will be a healthy size as adults. For females, we ensure that they are fully grown and filled out before being bred for the first time. Full bodied (not fat!) females make the best mothers - they are the most fertile and receptive to breeding, they have the most successful litters free of complications, and they are able to produce and nurse the biggest, healthiest babies.
2. We strive to provide new owners with excellent, friendly pets, so temperament is the second factor we consider. We prefer to get our hedgehogs from small or medium-sized breeders, rather than from extra-large mill-style facilities - we believe that hedgehogs born and raised in home settings, with consistent handling and exposure to household noise and activity, are the most friendly and trusting of people. The mother's personality, especially, is the earliest influence on the developing personality of a baby hedgehog. Each of our females are individuals - some are more outgoing and some are more cautious and reserved - but they all have great temperaments by any standards. Although the personality of the father has much less impact on the babies, we have seen evidence that there may be some genetic factor as well. Therefore, we try to achieve a balance with our chosen studs - we encourage the independence and confidence that makes for good breeders, and we develop friendly, relaxed temperaments with regular handling and interaction.
3. Diversity, while not considered by all breeders, has always been one of our main goals. We carefully track the pedigrees of our hedgehogs and look for genetic compatibility when choosing new breeding animals. Maintaining a wide variety of different bloodlines is imperative for our long-term goals as breeders. It allows us to keep breeding quality hedgehogs from our own litters and to improve the species over multiple generations, without being restricted by having too many hedgehogs with ancestors in common. We also value diversity in color and appearance. We have gone out of our way to acquire hedgehogs that fall outside the most common "dark range" types, and we choose breeding pairs that will produce an array of different colors and patterns. Having this kind of "rainbow" effect in a breeding herd is more valuable than many people realize - it allows us to produce all sorts of gorgeous babies, but it also lends itself to maintaining the diversity of the species and greater understanding of the "riddle" of hedgehog color genetics.
1. Above all else, health and longevity are most important. This includes the physical health of the individual as well as the genetic health. Our hedgehogs come from reputable, respected breeders and have at least 5 generations of pedigree - in some cases, we know the lineage going back 10-15 generations or more. We use the International Hedgehog Registry and a network of other breeders to verify that the lines we use for breeding are clean of genetic illness like WHS. We also look at the parents and grandparents, including their health and lifespan whenever possible, to try to avoid breeding hedgehogs with a genetic predisposition toward cancers or obesity. We do not breed any animals with physical abnormalities. Although it cannot be guaranteed because we usually purchase new hedgehogs when they are 2-3 months old, we do our best to choose hedgehogs that will be a healthy size as adults. For females, we ensure that they are fully grown and filled out before being bred for the first time. Full bodied (not fat!) females make the best mothers - they are the most fertile and receptive to breeding, they have the most successful litters free of complications, and they are able to produce and nurse the biggest, healthiest babies.
2. We strive to provide new owners with excellent, friendly pets, so temperament is the second factor we consider. We prefer to get our hedgehogs from small or medium-sized breeders, rather than from extra-large mill-style facilities - we believe that hedgehogs born and raised in home settings, with consistent handling and exposure to household noise and activity, are the most friendly and trusting of people. The mother's personality, especially, is the earliest influence on the developing personality of a baby hedgehog. Each of our females are individuals - some are more outgoing and some are more cautious and reserved - but they all have great temperaments by any standards. Although the personality of the father has much less impact on the babies, we have seen evidence that there may be some genetic factor as well. Therefore, we try to achieve a balance with our chosen studs - we encourage the independence and confidence that makes for good breeders, and we develop friendly, relaxed temperaments with regular handling and interaction.
3. Diversity, while not considered by all breeders, has always been one of our main goals. We carefully track the pedigrees of our hedgehogs and look for genetic compatibility when choosing new breeding animals. Maintaining a wide variety of different bloodlines is imperative for our long-term goals as breeders. It allows us to keep breeding quality hedgehogs from our own litters and to improve the species over multiple generations, without being restricted by having too many hedgehogs with ancestors in common. We also value diversity in color and appearance. We have gone out of our way to acquire hedgehogs that fall outside the most common "dark range" types, and we choose breeding pairs that will produce an array of different colors and patterns. Having this kind of "rainbow" effect in a breeding herd is more valuable than many people realize - it allows us to produce all sorts of gorgeous babies, but it also lends itself to maintaining the diversity of the species and greater understanding of the "riddle" of hedgehog color genetics.
Our breeding herd includes hedgehogs from some of the top breeders in North America, as well as breeding quality individuals kept from our own litters bred and born at Volcano View Hedgehogs. Our hedgehogs are all registered with the International Hedgehog Registry (IHR).
