New Owner Question!

[IndaB]

I hope I put this in the right place lol
But I am soon going to be a New owner this saturday I live with my aunt and we have a cat and 2 pitbulls. I would love to introduce the little guy to his new family but my aunt is worried about the cat wanting to hunt. He hunts mice and she is afraid if we introduce him to the hedgie he might loose intrest in mice and see the mice as friends cause of the hedgie will become a friend. Or he might want to hunt the poor hedgie D:

Anyone have any advice? Should I just not introduce him to the cat or would that make things wors

 

[smhufflepuff]

My thought would be to keep them separate. I know some people have introduced their hedgies to different animals and it appears to be okay, but I'm not really in favor of that. Cats are predators. Hedgies are prey. Not a good scenario in my mind.

The other thing to consider is that this hedgie will be new to you and you will be new to this hedgie. Hedgies are somewhat fragile in their temperament - they can become stressed and scared. You'll want to welcome this new addition into your home in the least stressful way possible. Make sure he has his own home that the cat & dogs cannot get into. Make sure he's settled - is making nice brown logs instead of green stress poops, is able to uncurl in your hands and look to you as a protector/friend without huffing, is eating and drinking and wheeling and doing all those good hedgie things... All of those things will be your number one priority.

Only after you've seen your new addition is doing okay, is healthy, feels settled, etc... should you start considering any introductions. Again, my bias is against introducing them at all -- one swat of a cat or dog paw or a little "friendly" chomp could easily injure or kill hedgie before you could intervene. However, if you do... definitely do not do it anytime soon. You'll also be able to take your lead from your new hedgie's behavior - some appear very brave; others remain skittish and afraid of new things throughout their lives. Let him get settled; get to know him; then, later, re-visit the idea. But definitely not right now.

 

[IndaB]

Okay thank you for the advice! I understand about letting him know me well before the introduction. He seems to be the adventure type and he is very cute when he is grumpy.

I want introduce him to the others but not until a while from now but the other animals do seem to be very interested. My dog especially he cant see Grayson but he sure can hear him going about in his cage. If I end up introducing the hedgie to the others I will probably just introduce him to my dog only since they will be living together in the future.

But I will take extra precaution I know my dog well and know his body language he is the kind of dog that is just really curious and just wants to see.