# Just a Quirk?



## AshWolFF

My hedgehog is 3 1/2 month's old. I got him when he was 5 weeks old. I was really stupid and I asked for a hedgehog under 2 month's which I learned too late was not a good idea. The breeders were not licensed, they were a young couple that took hedgehog breeding as a hobby, and since they were breeding a lot of Hog's at the time he didn't get too much attention. 

He's been with me for quite a while. For people who didn't read my introduction he does travel back and forth to my high school and to my home primarily during weekends. He's bonded with me a lot however but I've noticed a few quirks of his that seem odd.

During the time of research before I purchased him I notice how when you flip a hedgehog on its back it curls in a ball and stays like that or calmly remains in the hand. Mine if you turn him over he flips out, legs flying, head thrashing trying to run. 

He's also very over energetic I think. I'll want him to sit in my lap and sleep but instead he hops off the couch and takes off at a full run. I take him outside often because he gets this thing I call the Hedgehog Crazies (similar to the Puppy Crazies) where if I put him down while I'm doing dishes or bending over and cleaning his cage he takes off at run, shoots back to me and nips my ankles! After I get him past a sleepy stage there is no return from his endless running, squirming out of your hands, and ceaseless burrowing. I often am I night owl studying or finishing up some homework and I can hear him incessantly just pounding away at his wheel.

I know some hedgehog's are burrowers but he's like a burrower to the max. He doesn't like toys (they scare the crap out of him, literally, another story for another time) and he doesn't want to sleep on top of dog beds that I get him from the petstore. Anything and everything is something to burrow in. Once, in his antics, he hopped off the couch and buried himself in the TV wires. The dog beds I get him he either tears up and sleeps inside the stuffing or on the cold floor underneath it. If people are walking by and I have him running around the house he will shoot up their pant leg and attempt burrowing there. Often he goes for people's hair and get's stuck.


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## Annie&Tibbers

1. Hating being on their back. Normal. Totally normal. More normal than being calm, I think! And extra-normal when quilling, when being on his back is painful.

2. Super-energetic ball-o'-explorer. Normal personality type. Some are more sedate cuddlers, others are total explorers. Mine is an explorer who seemed like he had limitless energy in the first few months. I have an odometer on his wheel, and he'd run typically 7-9 km per a night, sometimes hitting 13-15 km! He's been on a sudden decrease since November, now running more like 3km/night at the grand ol' age of 10 months. (This may be do to a tweaked back, or maybe calming as he ages; hard to say!)

3. Burrowing: Normal personality type. Try giving him snuggle sacks or an igloo with stuffing to sleep in instead. Mine doesn't like people enough to go for pant legs, but a previous hedgehog I met did exactly that, and would keep climbing until forcibly stopped!


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