Everett hedgehog business trades in cuteness

  • By Jim Davis The Herald Business Journal
  • Wednesday, April 23, 2014 9:43am
  • BusinessEverett

EVERETT — Oliver is a friendly little ball of spiky joy.

The hedgehog is one of about a dozen in the living room of Krissy Brouner’s Everett home.

“You just have to scoop them up,” Brouner says. “They always do better in your hands.”

Most of the hedgehogs remain inside brightly colored carrying cases spread on a table each with a name tag and identifying information. Oliver and several others are outside burrowing into the cushions of her couch.

Brouner, 28, is a research specialist at the Allen Institute for Brain Research in Seattle. She also is the proprietor of Hedgehogs Northwest, a small business that raises and sells hedgehogs, their food and gear including wheels, cages and, oddly, hedgehog sleeping bags.

Brouner sold about 90 hedgehogs last year. Her price is $180 for a hedgehog and some food. Or $300 for a hedgehog and “everything you need for them.”

Many of her pet items she buys at wholesalers and resells to her previous customers. The hedgehog food is mink food she buys in bulk and sells in hedgehog-sized packages.

She makes the sleeping bags, which come in bright patterns and are flannel on the outside and fleece on the inside. They cost $9 for one or $15 for two.

Hedgehogs are novelty pets that become trendy at times and less so at others. The mammal with spiny quills and a cute as a button snout are indigenous in Europe, Africa and Asia. They’re only imported here as pets.

In Washington, hedgehogs are legal but some states ban them, said Alicia McLaughlin, a veterinarian at the Center for Bird &Exotic Animal Medicine in Bothell. Almost all of the hedgehogs in the United States are African pygmy hedgehogs that grow to be about 6 inches long and live about six to eight years, McLaughlin said. The ones in Europe can grow to about the size of a house cat. Hedgehogs come in dozens of colors.

“When people get hooked on hedgehogs they usually stay with them for the rest of their lives,” McLaughlin said.

Brouner got into hedgehogs in 1996 when she was about 10. Her older sister, Amy Dreyer, fell in love with a pair.

“She just walked into a pet store and thought they were the cutest animals ever,” Brouner said.

They named them Spike and Thistle.

“They lived long, happy hedgehog lives,” Brouner said.

When she went to college at the University of Washington, Brouner moved in with her sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Tim Dreyer, in Arlington. They decided they needed hedgehogs again.

By then, most pet stores didn’t carry them.

The sisters bought George and Sophie on the Internet. Then they decided that there was an under-served market. So they started raising little hedgehogs and selling them online. Hedgehogs Northwest proved popular.

“Every time we got a litter, we’d put something on Craigslist and we would get a 100 responses in a day.” Brouner said.

In 2009, Brouner moved into her own house in Everett. She looked for a home with a back building that could be converted to raise hedgehogs. She keeps wall-to-wall cages. The back building has a heater with the temperature cranked to 75, because the animals need a warm environment.

As a breeder, Brouner gets her property inspected once a year by a veterinary medical specialist from the United State Department of Agriculture.

She was keeping about 60 hedgehogs in March along with her Pomeranian named Teddy. “He keeps his distance, because they’re poke-y,” Brouner said.

She advises people with young children to pass on hedgehogs, because the quills can be sharp. But she says they’re great pets for teenagers and college students. Hedgehogs don’t need a lot of attention.

“If you have enough time to feed them, give them water and play with them some, they’re great,” she said.

For Brouner, it’s definitely a side business. Even so, her coworkers at the Allen Institute know she raises hedgehogs.

“They think that I’m just a crazy hedgehog lady,” Brouner said.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

Black Press Media operates Sound Publishing, the largest community news organization in Washington State with dailies and community news outlets in Alaska.
Black Press Media concludes transition of ownership

Black Press Media, which operates Sound Publishing, completed its sale Monday (March 25), following the formerly announced corporate restructuring.

Maygen Hetherington, executive director of the Historic Downtown Snohomish Association, laughs during an interview in her office on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Snohomish, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Maygen Hetherington: tireless advocate for the city of Snohomish

Historic Downtown Snohomish Association receives the Opportunity Lives Here award from Economic Alliance.

FILE - Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs poses in front of photos of the 15 people who previously held the office on Nov. 22, 2021, after he was sworn in at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Hobbs faces several challengers as he runs for election to the office he was appointed to last fall. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs: ‘I wanted to serve my country’

Hobbs, a former Lake Stevens senator, is the recipient of the Henry M. Jackson Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Mark Duffy poses for a photo in his office at the Mountain Pacific Bank headquarters on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Mark Duffy: Building a hometown bank; giving kids an opportunity

Mountain Pacific Bank’s founder is the recipient of the Fluke Award from Economic Alliance Snohomish County.

Barb Tolbert poses for a photo at Silver Scoop Ice Cream on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Barb Tolbert: Former mayor piloted Arlington out of economic brink

Tolbert won the Elson S. Floyd Award, honoring a leader who has “created lasting opportunities” for the underserved.

Photo provided by 
Economic Alliance
Economic Alliance presented one of the Washington Rising Stem Awards to Katie Larios, a senior at Mountlake Terrace High School.
Mountlake Terrace High School senior wins state STEM award

Katie Larios was honored at an Economic Alliance gathering: “A champion for other young women of color in STEM.”

The Westwood Rainier is one of the seven ships in the Westwood line. The ships serve ports in the Pacific Northwest and Northeast Asia. (Photo provided by Swire Shipping)
Westwood Shipping Lines, an Everett mainstay, has new name

The four green-hulled Westwood vessels will keep their names, but the ships will display the Swire Shipping flag.

A Keyport ship docked at Lake Union in Seattle in June 2018. The ship spends most of the year in Alaska harvesting Golden King crab in the Bering Sea. During the summer it ties up for maintenance and repairs at Lake Union. (Keyport LLC)
In crabbers’ turbulent moment, Edmonds seafood processor ‘saved our season’

When a processing plant in Alaska closed, Edmonds-based business Keyport stepped up to solve a “no-win situation.”

Angela Harris, Executive Director of the Port of Edmonds, stands at the port’s marina on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Edmonds, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Leadership, love for the Port of Edmonds got exec the job

Shoring up an aging seawall is the first order of business for Angela Harris, the first woman to lead the Edmonds port.

The Cascade Warbirds fly over Naval Station Everett. (Sue Misao / The Herald file)
Bothell High School senior awarded $2,500 to keep on flying

Cascade Warbirds scholarship helps students 16-21 continue flight training and earn a private pilot’s certificate.

Rachel Gardner, the owner of Musicology Co., a new music boutique record store on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 in Edmonds, Washington. Musicology Co. will open in February, selling used and new vinyl, CDs and other music-related merchandise. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Edmonds record shop intends to be a ‘destination for every musician’

Rachel Gardner opened Musicology Co. this month, filling a record store gap in Edmonds.

MyMyToyStore.com owner Tom Harrison at his brick and mortar storefront on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Burst pipe permanently closes downtown Everett toy store

After a pipe flooded the store, MyMyToystore in downtown Everett closed. Owner Tom Harrison is already on to his next venture.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.