# Eating EVERYTHING!



## Cb and Greed (Feb 24, 2012)

So my Greed has developed a new habit of eating everything. His bed liner (fleece), his paper towel tube, my clothes, he was even biting his wheel. and last night I caught him eating his litter paper towel and then anointing. He doesn't seem to be eating his poop, but chewing off pieces of the paper towel and putting in in his quills. I took the one he chewed up and put a clean one in the litter pan again, but he still ate it! I just left it empty because I can't use litter because he throws it everywhere and he seems to like eating paper towels. He does these things even with food in his bowl and doesn't ever bite anyone. Does anyone know what do do, I'm afraid he's gunna get sick from eating everything. And just a side note he is only about 7-8 weeks old just in case his age has to do with it.


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## alyssinreality (Jan 18, 2012)

What kind of food are you using? He may not like it.


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## shaelikestaquitos (Feb 2, 2010)

Sounds like your boy likes to anoint, not eating it :lol: It's common for hedgies to do that with new things. Do you was your liners, wheel, etc with scented soap? Maybe he likes the smell


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Is he actually eating (as in, swallowing) or just anointing? I agree with shaelikestaquitos - the way you describe it sounds more like self anointing; the "chewing" (if it can be called that) that goes along with anointing isn't really eating. More like they much it up in their mouth and make it into a froth with their saliva, then spread it on themselves. Some hedgehogs aren't the best choice for using paper towel with, because they'll rip it up or pull it out of their litter pan, and since I can't think of anything you can change if he likes to anoint with that, you might want to try another kind of litter - or it could be that just taping the paper towel down so it's not as accessible will do the trick. For everything else, I agree that you should consider the possible source of smells on the items that could be causing this reaction, because the majority of anointing is associated with a new or particularly strong/interesting smell. Consider what you wash the fleece and your clothes with, what you use to clean the wheel, etc. Also, some hedgehogs will anoint repeatedly every time they encounter a specific thing, and some will only do it the first time, and then not be as interested/excited after they're familiar with whatever it is.


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## Cb and Greed (Feb 24, 2012)

I don't think he is swallowing anything bc I keep finding pieces of whatever he chewed in his quills. I've only had him for 9 days so he may still be getting used to the smells. I'll see wat he does with the paper towel taped down. Thanx guys!


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Yeah, as long as he's just anointing and not swallowing anything, it's not going to be a health problem. Might be messy, but I imagine as he gets more used to his surroundings he won't do it as much. If you wash the fleece liners or anything else in his cage with scented detergent/soap, using unscented would probably help.

We use a little bit of double-sided tape at the corners of the paper towel on Ares' litter pan, not because he was chewing on it, but every time he would get off his wheel or crawl under it, the towel would get pulled partway off from his movements. A sticky-side-out loop of tape at each corner or whatever would work just the same.


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