# Knuckle-walking?



## kurai18 (Aug 31, 2009)

I have a 6-month old baby hedgie named Mozzy and she has a weird habit of standing on her knuckle.
Kinda like an orangutan does with their forearms - tucking in their fists and standing on their knuckles/wrist.
She does it with her front feet only, and mostly with her right one.
But she walks normally, and runs on her wheel fine too so it doesn't seem like a sprain or anything.
Her feet aren't deformed either.
I took her for a wellness checkup yesterday and mentioned it to the vet and the vet did a mini neurological exam.
She held Mozzy above the ground and near the edge of the examination table to see if she would try to grab the edge of the table which she did.
She also held her backlegs and "wheelbarrowed" her and she walked fine on her front legs.
So the vet said Mozzy definitely knew where her paws were and couldn't really see a neurological problem,
but just watch to see if she does it more often or if it starts affecting her movement.

Does anybody else have a hedgie that does this?
At this point it's just a weird little habit she has and I have no idea where she picked it up. lol

I'm attaching a picture of her doing it. Mozzy is the girl on the left with her right knuckle tucked in, in contrast with Pineapple on the right with her toes spread out.


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## velooyuotn (Apr 10, 2013)

That is an odd habit, but I am sure if the vet said nothing is wrong that it can't be bad.
I wonder if other hedgehog owners have seen this behavior


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

That is...weird...

But if all signs point to her being ok neurologically, I'm not really sure what else you could watch out for.

Maybe it's the equivalent of people who are pigeon-toed?


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## llankfo (May 2, 2013)

Reggie will sometimes stand on his knuckles on his front feet, but won't walk with them. Maybe it's just a little quirk!


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

By chance are her nails long? Sometimes if their nails curl more than normal, when the nails get even the slightest bit long, it can sort of force their toes to curve under too. I've had a couple over the years whose nails started curling under just past the nail bed and even if they weren't long, the way they curled forced the toe to curl too.


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## kurai18 (Aug 31, 2009)

It's relieving to know there is another hedgie out there that does this and is fine 
I just didn't want to dismiss it in case it was a symptom of something else.
As for her nails, I clip them about every two weeks and they don't get too long 
but I'll see if she tends to do it less if I clip her nails more often.
Thanks for the advice Nancy!


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