# The quills are falling out!!



## alexjones18 (Sep 2, 2010)

hello guys!! My Yoshi recently got a girlfriend, her name is Mitu. She is 6 weeks old and beautiful!! The thing is, i've never had a hedgie that small, and her little quills are falling out. If i knead it more that 10 minutes, then i will have like 8 quills in my hand... Is this normal in small hedgies or do i need to worry?


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

She's probably starting her quilling
As long as she has quills growing back then she's fine 

and by girlfriend, you don't mean that they don't share a cage right? ^-^
Just making sure ;D


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## alexjones18 (Sep 2, 2010)

Ohh no no, she has her own cage. She is too small. Mitu and Yoshi have a long distance love lol... But they play together in a big box kind of half an hour a day, but supervised both of them!


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

alexjones18 said:


> Ohh no no, she has her own cage. She is too small. Mitu and Yoshi have a long distance love lol... But they play together in a big box kind of half an hour a day, but supervised both of them!


You actually shouldn't let them meet, ever.
She can very easily get pregnant that way.
Hopefully she isn't pregnant right now o_o 6 weeks is way too young to be having babies!
Glad to know they at least have separate cages, though.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Outside of pregnancy risk, another very important reason they should not be allowed to play together is that females are induced ovulators. Meaning that they do not have a cyclic cycle like many other mammals, but ovulate when in the presence of a male. There has been some concern that when a female is constantly in the presence of a male she will ovulate frequently, and could possibly increase the risk of reproductive cancers later in her life.

Also there is concern that having a male so close to a female and to not be able to do what nature has programmed him to do (mate) that it can frustrate the male. Which isn't quite fair to the male hedgehog.


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## alexjones18 (Sep 2, 2010)

Oh oh... That means they will be never able to share a cage? Or only right now that she is too small?


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## nessariel (Mar 3, 2010)

They will never be able to share a cage. If they did share a cage, they would be constantly breeding, then killing the babies. It would be very unpleasant for all involved, including you, and would be very bad for the female's health to continually breed like that. Males and females should be kept apart at all times unless you are trying to breed, and even that should only be done with great thought, care, planning, and a great deal of money saved up for possible medical emergencies. If you do plan on breeding them once she is old enough, I would suggest having a look in the breeding section and reading about all of the possible things that can go wrong and how to prepare for such events. 

Also, hedgehogs with an unknown pedigree should never be bred, as they could carry genetic diseases, so unless you got both hedgehogs from a good, trustworthy breeder and you know their pedigree for several generations, they should not be bred.

I hope that I don't sound harsh, I just don't want anything bad to happen to your little hedgies!


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## alexjones18 (Sep 2, 2010)

Oh, thank you very much for all the information. Of course is not harsh, anything that i can do to keep my hedgies safe is welcome. I will find a bigger cage for my Mitu, cause my Yoshi has already a big one


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## Tomato (Aug 8, 2010)

Related to this, if the hedgie is quilling and not happy because of the discomfort - oatmeal wash/bath is supposed to help, right? If they're in pain, I'm guessing they won't want a bath too will they? How would you get them into the water for a bath?


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