Exotic Pets - African Pygmy Hedgehog - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. This is an African Pygmy Hedgehog. As the name implies, they come from Africa. Some of the more semi-arid areas of Africa. This is a baby. They get about the size of a softball when they are rolled up. Babies, as you can see, are usually the size of a baseball. They are very sharp, very spiky. They control, individually, each one of these spines which are used to deter prey, or predators from making them prey. Once they get to know you, they are not very nervous. They rarely ever ball up and they rarely spike you. These spikes are capable of making you bleed if they if they really wanted to. In captivity, they are insectivores. They will eat bugs. We also have a prepared hedgehog diet that we feed them. It comes in a pelleted form. They also like dried bug and even bugs that we sell that are sauteed in their own juices. They are really interesting pets. They are almost completely nocturnal so they do a lot of their running around at night. It is almost like having an animated pet rock. They do not take a lot of care. You want some bedding, a water bottle, a food bowl and then a hiding place for them to sleep at during the day. And then at night they come out and run around. This one is acting quite a bit shy right now. He does not really want to come out and say hello anymore. But that is because he does not really know me, it is the middle of the day and he is a little bit nervous. All in all, very easy pets to care for. They are very undemanding and they are kind of neat. They make a neat conversation piece and they are very, very sharp.