Why Do Hedgehogs Poop So Much?

It’s not unusual for people who are considering getting a pet hedgehog to ask, “Why do hedgehogs poop so much?” Hmmmm. The goofball in me wants to say, “Because they can!” But seriously, we understand your concern. Most of that fear is due to slightly over-exaggerated comments and pictures on the Internet. We’re here to give you the straight scoop on all the poop. Since this is a pretty crappy topic, we're going to try to lighten it up with humor and occasional jokes. Jokes will be found in the litter boxes throughout (stick around – you'll see).

Acknowledgement: Our sincere gratitude goes to Ryan Douglas for sharing his hedgie, Yams, with us. We love him, poop boots and all!

Perhaps you’ve seen the multitude of pictures on the internet of hedgehog poop boots. You know – the cute little hedgies with faces that melt your heart, but with their poop feet sticking up in the air (in hedgehog circles, that's called poop boots). On one hand, here’s this incredibly precious pet hedgehog. But on the other hand, there’s these nasty little feet embedded with crap. And then their owner tells you all that poop is from just ONE night of their hedgehog running on their wheel!

At that moment, all color drains from your face and you wretch at the thought of taking care of a hedgehog poop machine. How is it that a hedgehog can poop so much? And why would somebody take care of something that pooped that much?

Most of us hedgie owners also have hedgehog humor. We already know that the taboo topic of poop, and talking about copious amounts of it, are going to cause THAT very reaction by someone who has never owned one. And trust me, we’re laughing our butts off at it. What can I say? We’re crazy hedgehog people!

Hedgehogs have a very short body with a short digestive system that lacks a cecum. If you read our article, The Best Hedgehog Food List, we mentioned that hedgehogs lack the cecum that is necessary to efficiently process cellulose. For such a small animal, it almost seems inconceivable that they “have more than a metre (over three feet) of guts and a very large stomach“. Since pet hedgehogs usually eat cat kibble and that processes much faster than cellulose, what goes in also comes out sooner. Surprisingly enough, it only takes 12-16 hours for what they eat to traverse their digestive system [Reeves, N Hedgehogs pg 53]. For comparative purposes, it takes humans roughly 24 to 72 hours to process food through theIr digestive system (depending on what was eaten of course).

As a refresher from your biology classes back when you were in school, let's examine what the small and large intestines do. The small intestines do most of the nutritional absorption. And the large intestine finishes absorbing whatever nutrients remain, along with the moisture from the food. Oh – and let's not forget – It also forms the poop. Our animated hedgehog digestive system above shows that a hedgie’s poop factory 💩 is very short and extremely close to their anus. This physiological arrangement also answers, ‘Do hedgehogs poop when they run?’ Yes. Yes they do. But not always (more on that later).

We're well aware that this poopy running wheel is disturbing to see. If it's any consolation, this wheel is well outside the norm for a hedgehog to produce overnight. Sometimes shock is the best way to get someone's attention. Have we gotten your attention yet? Good! Let's move on.

Let's examine the mechanics of why a hedgehog poops so much while running and how they get the poop boots. Imagine a hedgehog racing on their wheel, while dropping a load. All that movement also helps move what's in their large intestine right on out. Plop! Now it's on the wheel! And they run surprisingly fast in spite of having such short little legs. Before you know it, the turd on the wheel track has come full circle and they’ve trampled right through it! Gasp! And around and around it goes! Now poop boots have been born.

Hmmmm. Define everywhere. Put it this way…there is the potential for them to be prolific poopers. However, with diligence and persistence, most hedgehogs can be trained to poop in a litter pan or a litter area. Sometimes the two become one. The picture above shows Quilly's litter area. We recently rearranged his cage so the wheel was on the lower level over his main litter pan.

He's litter trained. However, even though he will hop off his wheel to relieve himself, you can see that poop happens. It's very rare that he has an accident on his wheel, but it can and does happen from time to time (like shown). His litter training didn't happen overnight either. If you haven't litter trained your poop monster yet, we suggest you give our article on How To Litter Train a Hedgehog a good read. We also recommend reading about the different types of litters there are as you embark on the litter training journey.

The phrase “so much” is relative and for some, a hedgehog clearly isn't the animal for them. This is what we have found in over twenty years of experience with hedgehogs…like children, they're going to poop and in the early stages, it's never going to be an opportune time. And like children, they can be potty trained. Where a hedgehog poops is something that can be taught.

Statistically, there are more women that own hedgehogs than there are men. Perhaps the maternal instinct kicks in and they're better equipped to deal with poop situations. I personally don't think that hedgehogs poop a lot, but I'm biased. Ultimately it's up to each person to decide how poop sensitive they are. I guess the question is, are you going to let some poop come between you and a hedgehog's incredibly cute face?

Hedgehog Poo and The Clues In It