# Teething. Follow-up.



## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

The other thread was locked while I was putting down feedback for km2022's question, so I am moving the question.
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My 7 week old hedgehog bit me this morning and he wouldn't let go. He has also been chewing my shorts. Is he teething, biting or bored? 
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He's a baby. He's learning. He is probably just 'tasting' or 'testing' new smells and tastes. Hedgehogs anoint with new smells and tastes. Anointing is pretty funny to watch. They will bite and tug and pull and wrestle . . . Ha! This will often lead to anointing. This is when they work up a good foam in their mouth and then spread it over their quills. This is especially fun to watch because they will be twisting and turning - and not infrequently they will wind up flopping over a time or two. It isn't known why they do this, but is a very interesting behavior to watch.

Sophie does not anoint very often. When she encounters a new taste or smell she will usually only anoint with it once. It seems to be a lifetime 'inoculation'. She does anoint with my hair every few months. Evidently she needs 'booster shots' with my hair. I've never actually gotten to see that, because I just lay still and let her it do it. It's a strange feeling. It hurts a little. She can pull pretty darn hard. But she mostly can't quite bite me, so letting her anoint with my hair as always been something that I can let her do.

I'm always pretty careful to have clean hands. That's important. It would be mean to let her become interested in some new smell or taste and then have me take it away from her. I wouldn't mind - but allowing her to sample from my hands isn't possible. She would chew me up. Keeping clean hands is important. Eliminate the temptation.

You can let him sample your shorts, though. There's no harm in that.

Hedgies, so far as I know, don't 'teeth'.

Some hedgehogs are more prone to biting than others. It is a behavior that cannot be 'rewarded with punishment' because it would become very difficult to alter than behavior. If the result of reward / punishment is something that the hedgehog wants or learns to want, that is a problem. For example, if the hedgehog is returned to its cage after biting, maybe they learn that biting means getting to go back home. Don't let that get started.

It's generally pretty easy to avoid biting though. Most biting (by a wide margin) is the result of 'owner error'. Once the owner learns what's what then the problem goes away. Sophie is not a biter, but she can bite. It's a natural thin to do. I have learned the various triggers and simply avoid them. Those times that she anoints - they are situations that I allow to happen, so don't count as 'biting'.

With a genuine bite, the best course - aside from the owner learning what they did wrong - is to 'ignore and distract'; that is, to pretend it didn't happen and redirect the hedgies attention.


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