Hedgehog Teeth And The Need For Dental Care

With almost all animals, oral hygiene is frequently overlooked. We don't believe that it's out of negligence, but rather, out of sight is out of mind. How many hedgie parents are going to actually risk hedgehog bites by fidgeting with their hedgie's mouth? So unless an issue becomes glaringly obvious, we tend to leave well enough alone. Yet there is a definite need for vigilant dental awareness and care with hedgehog teeth. It's pretty common for hedgehogs to experience mouth problems that can quickly take a downward spiral into an emergency situation. In this article we'll cover several things you should know.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Our sincere thanks goes to Veronica Wilkanski Diaz for letting us use her picture of Cupid. We did a little Photoshop magic to brush his little hedgie teeth. Hopefully he won't chomp us. Thanks for being a good sport Veronica 🙂

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: Heavenly Hedgies is an Amazon Associate. We have partnered with them and other reputable merchants when they sell something that we feel will benefit our readers. By purchasing through our links, we may earn a small commission on sales, that helps us continue to provide informative and educational information for hedgie lovers. And the best part is that there is no additional cost to you. Thank you for being a loyal and supportive reader here at Heavenly Hedgies.

Usually within 18 to 23 days after they're born, a hoglet begins cutting their “milk teeth”. Milk teeth are another name for baby teeth. By the time a hoglet is 7 to 9 weeks old, their baby teeth should be completely in. Often hedgie parents don't realize that these even exist or that they fall out and are replaced with permanent teeth.

An adult hedgehog will typically have between 36 to 44 permanent teeth. Their teeth, much like humans, consist of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. A hedgehog will begin to lose their baby teeth and grow their adult permanent teeth starting around the 7th to 9th week. These baby teeth are so small that they usually get eaten by your hedgehog without you ever being aware of it.

Now you do realize though, that if you are fortunate enough to find one of your hedgie's baby teeth, you are obligated to be the Hog Tooth Fairy! You must exchange the tooth for several wormies or other appropriate treat.

Often there are at least two tell-tale signs that a hedgehog may be experiencing teeth issues. First, your hedgehog may have difficulty chewing or they may totally avoid chewing since their mouth hurts. Second, your hedgie may have swelling along the jaw line, gums, lips, chin, or upper snout area. Some other signs that may indicate teeth issues is bad breath (halitosis), drooling, weight loss, pawing at their mouth, rubbing their jaw up against things or along the ground, and signs of blood around their mouth. If you see one or more of these signs, we strongly suggest that you have them seen by a qualified veterinarian as soon as possible.

Often, whenever a hedgie parent finds an adult tooth that has fallen out, it is after there are underlying dental problems. Just like humans, hedgehogs can develop plaque and tartar build-up. If this continues, it can lead to gingivitis. Gingivitis is a type of periodontal disease, but it's not but it doesn't cause the tooth loss. It's when gingivitis advances untreated, that it can lead to periodontitis. This is only one cause of tooth loss.

Our gratitude goes out to Luella Robertson for allowing us to use this picture of her hedgehog's lost tooth.

Thanks go to Kayla Lake who shared her hedgehog's lost tooth picture.

Our heartfelt thanks to Lacey Grace who shared this picture of Basil's teeth that were extracted. Sadly Basil passed away from cancer shortly after the extraction.

There is another cause of tooth loss, however it's often untreatable. When a hedgehog has abnormal cell growth in their mouth, called neoplasms, they are often cancerous. Whenever cancer is found in a hedgehog's oral cavity, it's typically an aggressive squamous cell carcinoma. If that is the fate of your hedgehog, we wish we could give you some ray of hope or some miraculous cure. In all honesty, we can't. All we can suggest is that you love your quill baby and send them humanely over the rainbow before they begin to suffer. If this is something you find yourself faced with, we highly recommend that you read our article “Will There Be Hedgehogs in Heaven?” Maybe it will bring you some comfort.

There are several things that you can do at home to improve your hedgehog's oral hygiene and decrease the possibility of teeth issues. We will cover each of them and give you some tips and tricks to make it as simple as possible.

Examining the inside of your hedgehog's mouth to assess the healthiness of their teeth puts you well ahead of any surprise oral issues. By the time an abscessed tooth causes a lump visible on the outside of their mouth, the infection is rather advanced. By performing periodic checks inside your hedgehog's mouth, you'll become aware of any plaque and tartar build-up before it becomes a problem leading to infection.

If your hedgehog isn't going to allow you to perform a periodic look inside their mouth, the next best thing is watching their chew pattern. Here again we're going to give you another compelling reason why you should have one or more wifi cameras on your hedgehog. If you have one aimed at their food dish and watch a few minutes each day, you'll know without any doubt if their chew pattern changes or if they are just avoiding eating. This can be a very good indicator that something is wrong. We personally have and use 5 Wyze cameras and one is definitely aimed at Quilly's dish!

There are times when it's appropriate to feed your hedgehog soft cat food. If they already have lost several teeth, crunchy kibble will hurt their gums. In that case, vets will often suggest switching to a soft cat food. However, if your hedgehog is young and their teeth are healthy, they should be eating a crunchy cat kibble like what we recommend here. The crunchiness helps reduce plaque and tartar build-up, so while they're eating, they're increasing their oral hygiene. We'd like to throw a word of caution out there though. There is such a thing as a particular food being too hard that it hurts rather than helps.

We've mentioned it in our Hedgehog Checklist article. A water bottle that has a metal straw is something that hedgehogs frequently crack their teeth on. Ask anyone who has been bitten by a hedgehog. They have some very strong jaws! Because water bottles not only pose a danger to their teeth, but also their eyes, we strongly suggest that you avoid using them. We use a gravity fed water reservoir that keeps Quilly from stepping in or tipping his water.

While it may seem bizarre to hear, you can and should clean your hedgehog's teeth. Never use human toothpaste because it can't be swallowed, not to mention it wouldn't be yummy to a hedgehog. As is demonstrated by darcytheflyinghedgehog of Instagram fame, brushing your hedgehog's teeth CAN be done! If you have the right paste and brush that is! An alternative to a hedgehog-sized toothbrush is to use a cotton bud. If you go that route, make sure your hedgie doesn't eat the cotton off the stick trying to eat the chicken flavored pet toothpaste. Better yet, if you look below, we found reusable silicone faux buds that are soft and your hedgie won't be getting cotton in their mouth.

Any one of these toothbrushes will make brushing your hedgehog's teeth easier with the small sized heads to get into their small mouths. We personally like the first one shown below, but any one of them would be effective for cleaning hedgehog teeth. It's all a matter of personal preference and what works best for you and your hedgehog.

This micro-head toothbrush is the same one that darcytheflyinfhedgehog is shown using.

This toothbrush has an extra small head with soft bristles all around. Perfect for twirling debris away from gums.

The finger guard on this toothbrush keeps your finger safe from being bitten by your hedgehog while brushing their teeth.

Rather than risk cotton coming off in your hedgehog's mouth, these silicone swabs are soft and reusable.

This tooth polisher has a small 360-degree head making it easier to clean hedgehog teeth

Most hedgehogs aren't going to let you stick a toothbrush in their mouth unless it tastes like a yummy treat. This specially formulated pet toothpaste doesn't foam and is intended to be swallowed. This particular one is poultry flavored. But they have other flavors too! If we could get hedgehogs to spit toothpaste, we wouldn't need flavored paste.

In the paper “Oral and dental disorders in pet hedgehogs“, Tzvetan Chaprazov who holds a Master in Veterinary Science, encourages the use of dental chew products made for dogs and cats, and also toothpaste. Additionally, he suggests that hedgehogs can benefit from dental chews and dental toys as long as they can get their mouths on them. We searched high and low to find the right size orally therapeutic toys and chews. Try one or more of these if regular brushing of your hedgehog's teeth isn't doable.

Your hedgehog should have their teeth periodically cleaned by their veterinarian. Unfortunately, in order to do this, your vet will need to put them under anesthesia, which carries a certain amount of risk. We recommend that if you are already having a procedure done on your hedgehog that requires anesthesia, speak with your vet about doing an inspection and cleaning of your hedgehog's teeth. Depending on the complexity of the procedure your hedgie is going through, your vet may not feel that it is wise. However, if it can be safely done, it's better to mitigate anesthesia risks with a single session rather than multiple ones.

Hedgehogs are unique pets that require more vigilance by hedgie parents than some common pets like cats or dogs. Since they are nocturnal, it can be easy to miss illness indicators like hedgehog teeth that are infected or missing. We hope that we've been able to raise awareness regarding an often overlooked and problematic health issue with hedgehogs. After all, as hedgie parents, we want them to be healthy and happy, don't we?