I use to have one as teenager. If you clean the cage once or twice a week they smell no worse then a cats shit box. I named mine sonic, as saga was huge back then. If you let it out of its cage and let it run around often they can get somewhat social. They still curl into a ball like in the pic when picked up, after a bit they open up and let you hold them. The spines do burn when you grab them a little to hard lol. And I am now a dog person, cats are retarded, my wife brought one home years ago and then got rid of it after it started shitting all over and bitting.