It is important to spend at least one hour a day with your hedgehog when you bring them home. This will allow your baby to get to know you and feel comfortable with you. Hedgehogs identify people by their scents. Until they have bonded with you and your scent, they will be a bit timid. You can also put a worn t-shirt into their cage for them to snuggle with. This will allow them to adjust to your scent a bit sooner.
At Beach Bum Hedgehogs, we feed a mix of several kitten and cat foods. We will give you an initial supply when you purchase your hedgie from us. You can then continue to purchase the foods we use or start your own mix. If you choose to feed a different cat food, you will need to mix this in slowly with our food so that your baby does not get an upset stomach. If you prefer to use a food specifically designed for hedgehogs we recommend Spikes Delite Premium or Ultra foods or Sunseed makes a Vita Hedgehog food which is very good also. Some hedgehogs also enjoy mealworms and crickets. You can offer those to your hedgie about 3 times per week. Fresh fruit, hard boiled or scrambled eggs, baby food and boiled chicken are also nice treats for your hedgehog. Make sure to only introduce one item at a time so that if there is a reaction, you will know which food caused it.
There are several different housing options that you can choose. Some folks prefer to use large Sterilite containers as they are easy to clean and light weight. These aren't quite as visually appealing as some of the other options available but work well for the hedgehog with minor modifications. Some folks like to use wire cages with the large solid pan underneath of them. These are much more visually appealing but you need to keep in mind that if your hedgehog decides to climb up the horizontal wires you will need to make a cage modification. Another option is an aquarium but keep in mind that these need to be cleaned very well and are very heavy. A minimum of a 20 gallon tank would need to be purchased in order to house a hedgehog properly. And a final note - a solid bottom surface to walk on is a must as their little feet cannot handle walking on wire bottom cages.
There are a lot of choices available for bedding. Some folks prefer liners while others like aspen or Carefresh. All of these are very good options just depending upon what you would like. Keep in mind that hedgehogs are natural burrowers and you can run into problems occasionally with liners. Your hedgehog may choose to stay underneath of the liner instead of on top of it. It is a personal choice of which option you choose. My only caution is to NOT use cedar. It has natural oils that can harm your hedgehog!
There are many wonderful sites out there that have tons of information. I have lightly touched on a few areas. I recommend you visit Hedgehog Central for a more complete education on proper care.