I left a longer response about my hedgehog holding experience, but wanted to add here too. For sure a lot of them are assholes but I think part of that is they’re pretty anxious and scared critters a lot of times too. It can be hard to calmly reassure something while getting stabbed by it. I found for the one I cared for they’d ball every time I picked them up but as long as I didn’t react sharply if I got stabbed they’d usually chill out after a minute or so
I left a longer response about my hedgehog holding experience, but wanted to add here too. For sure a lot of them are assholes but I think part of that is they’re pretty anxious and scared critters a lot of times too. It can be hard to calmly reassure something while getting stabbed by it. I found for the one I cared for they’d ball every time I picked them up but as long as I didn’t react sharply if I got stabbed they’d usually chill out after a minute or so