# The potato has landed...Bindi's home!!



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

She's home, she's home!!!  My little girl FINALLY came home last night and I'm so, so happy.

Here was the only picture I took of her last night, as I wanted to let her settle in a bit after a short cuddle session. She's going to be 6 months in 6 days! My little baby's already getting so grown up.



So we started our snuggle session tonight. "Mom, go away, 'M sleeping!"



I didn't listen. :lol: Cue the grumps!



Oh wait, there's a face starting to emerge...



"Fine, I'm awake, what?" I love how big her ears look! I can't tell if they actually are or if it's just this picture.



"Hm...you do smell familiar..." I thought she was going to bite me as she's pretty scent-oriented & has bitten me numerous times already. No bite though! Guess my current body wash isn't as intriguing as my perfume.



So last time I was visiting her at Jackie's, she pulled herself into a perfect little oval shape in my hand and earned herself the nickname of Potato. Well, she continues to perfect her potato shape. :lol:



It cracks me up! She can barely fit in one of my hands & unless she curls herself up, she ends up with her back feet dangling off my hand. So she tucks all of her edges in so she can fit...and her butt still hangs off. :lol: Before I put her away for the night, I went "Alright, Potato..." and she immediately went into potato shape, so I think she's accepted her nickname. Which is good, because she's stuck with it forever now!

And here's the obligatory hedgeball picture. She's surprisingly patient with it & will give me several seconds before she starts the "let me DOWN" flail.



And of course, I have to show off The Potato Palace (yes, that's the official cage name now...I'm going to have FUN with this)!





I still have quite a bit of work to do in various areas. I want to add some coroplast to the top to help hold in heat. It's holding more or less steady at around 74-75, enough that I'm comfortable being gone for work tomorrow. But I'd still rather have that be the happy medium rather than the upper limits of the heating system. The lamps have 150w bulbs in them, so I want to add a third lamp & have them all be 100w to see if it heats more evenly, without hot spots underneath the lamps.

The bedding is Reptibark, what Ashley (FinnickHog) is using. So far I like it! Bindi doesn't seem to care much either way, I haven't seen much reaction to it yet. She's loving the white Lixit pigloo (which was Lily's & she also loved it) and that's been the bed of choice so far. I'm planning to add in more cage furniture, things to hide food in/under, etc. so it won't be so open. She doesn't seem to mind so far though - you can see she ran enough on her wheel last night to poop a bit. Didn't see any urine yet, though, not sure if it's in the bedding or if she didn't go. Will be checking for that tomorrow. She did eat almost a tablespoon of food, so I'm happy with that. I need to double check on how much she's been eating. The green dish will be for treats & extras, maybe starting around the end of the week.

So yeah! I'm absolutely thrilled to have this funny little girl home. She's perfect and I love her so much. And I'm really happy that it worked out that I could bring her home this week - today was the 5th anniversary of losing my mom, and it's always a hard day & time of year for me. This is honestly the happiest I've been on this day in the past five years. I like to think my mom helped make things work out like this so that Bindi could be my Christmas present this year.  I know she's happy to see me with a quillbaby again, she knew how special Lily was to me. And Bindi is going to be just as special in her own way!

(Just wait, you guys are going to get tired of me going on about her. :lol: It's been almost four years since I've had a hedgehog to post pictures & stories of!)


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

No, I've renamed the cage... It is the potato bin. 
I'm so happy that you have found a way to make a sad day into a more positive one! 
She is soooo cute, and she might have some radar ears.


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## FinnickHog (Dec 1, 2014)

Yay! I'm so glad she's finally home with you. I doubt it's a fluke she came home with you on such a previously unhappy day.

She is the absolute cutest potato ever! I can't wait to see her and her cage as you upgrade it!


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

This is the news I was waiting for! I'm so excited for you! How is the Potato settling in? I can't wait to hear more and see more pictures!


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## Slava (May 29, 2015)

Congratulations! If only Potato knew how lucky she is to have you as her mommy.

Those are some awesome pics too, I have to do something like that soon.


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## shetland (Sep 2, 2008)

Life is now as it should be.......Bindi is home! Your Mom is so happy for you and so proud of you. I am sure she and Lily are in a lilac garden smiling........... and Lily is chasing your Mom about the garden!!!!!!!!!!!!! I look forward to many pictures and stories!!!!!!!


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## Leeloosmommy (Oct 14, 2015)

I am sooooo happy for you!!!! She is so beautiful! It is so cute when the give up their ball to explore


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Thanks everyone!!  I'm already looking forward to cuddle night tonight. So begins my evenings of complete non-productivity. :lol:

Potato Bin is a good name for the cage too. :lol: Although that'd be a sad potato bin with only one potato...Not that I plan to add any more anytime soon! One of the other hedgies (female, of course) at Jackie's wanted very badly to be friends with Bindi & cuddle with her. Bindi wanted NONE of it! No roommates allowed, clearly.

I think she's settling in okay. I wish I had more for her to do in her cage, but she has plenty to get used to for now anyway. I might add a couple more things tonight or tomorrow night. She ate, drank, pooped, and peed last night, so I'm a happy mama!  And she continues to like the white pigloo, that was the sleeping spot of choice last night again. I was so hoping she'd choose the tree stump, but I think it might need some more "stuffing" to make it more hedgie-friendly. It's too open right now.

And thank you, Shetland, I was waiting for you to see this!  And you're definitely right about Lily and my mom...silly girl never liked her grandma for some reason. :roll: :lol: 

I have a feeling Bindi is going to have to join me for a trip back to Michigan sometime next year, I want her to meet her grandpa! She did great on the ride home from Jackie's (about 45 minutes), so hopefully she'll continue to be a good traveler.


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## nuttylover (Jun 5, 2015)

Eeeek this was the post that I have been waiting for! Congratulations on getting Bindi home! I am so psyched to hear more updates on her. She looks so pretty <3


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Congrats Kelsey. We will keep our quills crossed that her transition to her new home will continue to be uneventful and well.... perhaps boring (I think you'll understand that comment coming from me).. Just nice boring, quiet snuggles.


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## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

Congrats on your new baby! She looks just like my darling LuLu, but bigger. How much does she weigh? I haven't been on the forum for awhile, so you may have already answered this, but are you planning to feed her a raw diet? So happy that you found some joy in this holiday season


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

I'd say she is by far a good russet size, maybe even a good yam. By far, not a fingerling or one of those oh so yummy red potatoes.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Definitely not a fingerling. :lol: Now I want to take a picture of her next to one of the potatoes we have for comparison...Heh. She may have to deal with that during tonight's cuddle session!

And yes Kalandra, I'm more than happy if things stay boring!! Exciting with hedgehogs never means anything good, does it? :roll: So far, so good, and I'm knocking on my wood bookshelf...

CoffeeKat, it's great to see you again!! How are you & your girl doing? I am planning on feeding Bindi a raw diet.  Right now we're sticking with kibble for at least a couple weeks while she finishes settling in and I finish getting the apartment set to rights. I'm still trying to work out how I want to go about switching & what I want to try first too. I need to place an insect order soon so that I can get them on their way here. I want to raise dubia roaches but need to find a place where I could keep a tote for them first. I already have a set of drawers ready to start a mealworm farm in. And I need to see what I can convince Bindi to take too...she's not a brave girl, at all. She's afraid of anything that moves too much. :lol: So far she likes mealworms and waxworms. I'm hoping frozen/thawed insects might tempt her since they won't scare her by wiggling too much.

I haven't weighed her yet, but I do have my scale out! I'll have to do that tonight as well so I can start her weight record. I'll let you know once I find out!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Cuddle time has begun and we started with our first official weigh-in. Miss Bindi is 446 grams! Almost 100g over what Lily's healthy weight was, if I remember right. No wonder she can't fit in my hand. :lol: Also I took a picture of two potatoes hanging out, just for you Twobytwo.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Well that proves it... She is a sweet potato!!!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: Perfect!

And okay, so this isn't related to Bindi. But I'm so happy and excited, I'm boasting about it everywhere. I fed our ball python, Charis, her first frozen/thawed rat tonight. She's 8 years old & has always been fed live, so I was nervous about whether she would switch or not. Ball pythons are especially notorious for being picky about food. 

Well...Charis continues to prove herself to be the perfect snake! A minute or less of me wiggling the rat around, and then I accidentally dropped it as my hand was cramping. The same instant it fell, Charis struck & coiled. 20 minutes later & the rat was gone!  I'm SO proud of her and so happy that she took it so readily. I was all ready with a list of different methods for enticing them to switch. Now to hope she continues to give me repeat performances!


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Kelsey... You know your supposed to do diet changes gradually! 3/4 live 1/4 frozen.


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## FinnickHog (Dec 1, 2014)

Yaaaaaay all excellent news so far! Hopefully everything is smooth sailing now that all the crazyness of getting everyone settled in has passed.

Good job Charis! Frozen/thawed is the way to go. I had to feed Akihiko a live mouse earlier. It was awful and I hated it, but he hadn't eaten in other a month. Hopefully he eats frozen next time I offer it. The darn mouse even managed to bite him on the face. It's a tiny nick but enough to terrify me at the time, considering Aki cost me a mere $700 >.<.

Keep eating frozen Charis! No need to stress mommy out over snake food!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Oh jeeze, that sucks!!  Poor you and Akihiko. I hope he'll take a frozen one next, now that he's remembered that mice are tasty. Let me know how he does!

And yeah, I stressed enough just feeding her the frozen one, so I don't know what I'd do if I had to feed live. I'm so not used to being a snake/reptile owner yet. :roll: Hopefully I'll get used to this!


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## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

My oldest son had a King snake years ago, and I remember him trying to switch it over from live to frozen/thawed mice, but I don't recall that he was successful. Glad to hear that you made the transition, Kelsey. 

LuLu and I are doing great, thanks for asking  I just posted an update in Our Raw Adventure but don't know how to link it here (I'm on my tablet, too lazy to fire up the laptop). Not much of an update, since nothing much has changed, but I guess that's news in and of itself.

Kelsey, how is Tessa doing? Did she move to KC with you?


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

KELSEY!! I'm so excited Bindi is finally home! It has definitely been a long time for you but it looks like you found a perfect little girl to fit right into your heart! :grin:

Her palace looks wonderful! I love it! Let us know how the reptibark works with cleaning and the like. Not sure if I could ever switch Penny to it since she was nomming on the aspen when I first got her. But I'm always interested in new ideas. 

As for Charis eating f/t, that is amazing!! My sister's new ball has taken everything we have given him but since we have only had him for three feedings, we are waiting to change it up but definitely want to get him on prekilled or f/t. Right now, he's on rat pups so the danger is a lot less but before he gets onto bigger sizes, we need to switch him over. 

I expect lots of pictures of Bindi for years to come!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

CoffeeKat - I saw the update & replied!  I'm so glad to hear Lulu is still doing great on her raw diet. 

And Tessa did move to KC with me and she did great for a few months. Unfortunately, I said goodbye to her in the beginning of October. She had some health issues making it harder for her to get around, which meant that we couldn't take walks. That was one of the few things she had left that she really enjoyed, and she just didn't seem to have great quality of life anymore. She had a very long life with my family though - she was 15.5 years old! And her final vet appointment went exactly as I'd hoped. I found a mobile vet who was able to come to the house. Tessa always got very stressed out just by car rides, much less at the vet's office, so even driving to the vet & doing it in the car would have been upsetting for her. Instead, she was lying on her bed & getting lots of treats while the vet took information down & gave her the first shot. She fell asleep on her bed and it was all very peaceful - no shaking, stress, or scary things for her! It was sad to say goodbye to her, but it was the best possible way. And now she's with my mom (her mom!) again, so I'm sure they're both very happy about that.  Thank you for thinking to ask about her though!

Desiree - Thank you!! I'm completely in love with my little potato, she's been making me smile and laugh since even before I got her home. It's so nice to be back to nightly cuddles!

So far I think the Reptibark is working out well! Bindi potties on her wheel only as far as I can tell - I haven't found anything outside of the wheel & her litterbox. She doesn't seem bothered by the bedding at all, and indeed her new sleeping spot is underneath her litterbox, with a little hollow dug out of the bedding. :roll: I have two beds in there (with more to come) and that's where she wants to sleep...figures. The only issue I have with Reptibark so far is the price tag. $20 for a bag - and it takes two bags to fill the cage! However, I think I may go with monthly bedding changes if she continues to stick with pottying in her wheel/litterbox. The Reptibark is temporary anyway, until I have the time & resources to try out a bio-active substrate.

I'm still so tickled about Charis.  I've been mentioning it to all of my coworkers today. Good luck with your sister's snake! I hope he switches easily once you guys start trying. Let me know if you need the list of tips that can help with switching. I got some from Ashley (FinnickHog) and also have posts saved on Tumblr from the reptile community there, who are all fantastic. 

And I will definitely be happy to provide them!  I'm planning a Christmas post in a couple days to show off the animal crew with the presents I bought them today!


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Here's my question... Have you been to the plaza yet??? I need a kc fix!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: I'm sorry, but I probably won't risk it! I don't like traffic, people, or this time of the year (although my opinion is vastly improving this year so far), so I don't want to see Christmas lights enough to brave all of that! Maybe CoffeeKat will go get you some pictures!


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## octopushedge (Apr 26, 2015)

Haven't been online recently so I missed this. Congrats Kelsey! May you and Bindi have many adventures.


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## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

Ha! I never miss a chance to avoid the Plaza, especially this time of year. Instead, I have a big Topsy's Popcorn canister with Plaza Lights artwork that is just gorgeous, so that satisfies my occasional urge to see the sparkling jewel.

Kelsey, I'm sorry to hear about your loss of Tessa, and totally understand your decision to let her go. It takes courage to make that decision, and facing the loss of a pet is the biggest downside to having animals in our lives. If she could talk, I'm sure she's saying "Thanks for everything. I had a wonderful time."


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## KristinNicole (Oct 20, 2015)

omg bindi is the cutest! I don't get long before poe bear stays flailing in the hedge ball lol


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

Congrats Kelsey! She has a sweet face


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Thank you, CoffeeKat, I really appreciate it. 

And thanks, guys!  Now that we're settling in, I'll probably start one thread to update periodically for Bindi with pictures, stories, etc. And honestly, she's pretty good about staying in a hedgeball...she's such a chill, lazy hedgehog. :lol: She's huffy & puffy and quills up quickly for now, but she's still quite relaxed in general and all she wants to do when I have her out is curl up & sleep. Fine by me, cuddles are my favorite hedgie activity.  We watched Parks & Rec last night for a couple hours and then I dozed off for almost an hour with her snuggled up next to me and my hand over her. She definitely has my heart already. <3


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

I think I'm the only person who refuses to nap with a hedgie. When I'm asleep, I look like I'm being electrocuted. No way am I going to have something prickly and breathing near me when I sleep.


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

twobytwopets said:


> I think I'm the only person who refuses to nap with a hedgie. When I'm asleep, I look like I'm being electrocuted. No way am I going to have something prickly and breathing near me when I sleep.


Fell asleep next to one of my hedgehogs once, hasn't happened since. Faceplanted him at some point, we both slept through, woke up an hour later with bright red quill patterning on my face.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: Ouch! I definitely don't recommend napping with hedgehogs. Too many risks as far as squishing hedgie or hedgie deciding it's adventure time. The only reason I've done it with Bindi is a) she's the laziest potato ever & only ever wants to sleep, b) I keep contact with her somehow so I can feel her movement, and c) I'm a pretty light sleeper when I have something tiny & living next to me. Plus I don't do it when I'm actually exhausted & going to really sleep - just a catnap (hedgenap?). Yeah, I'm guilty of the "do as I say, not as I do" thing.  Still though, not a great idea for anyone new-ish to hedgie owning & reading this! I'm a bad example, don't copy me!


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

I sleep through most things. I could have easily squished a hedgie. I was playing and took an accidental nap. Woke up to Elvis laying between the girls. Fortunately, there was an elbow and knee curled up under me too. 
I move so much that I will un-make the bed, completely wrap myself up in my blankets like a cocoon, if I'm wearing pajama bottoms the waistband is usually turned backwards by morning. However, I'm in the exact same position I went to sleep in.


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## octopushedge (Apr 26, 2015)

I sleep like a rock but I go into full mom-mode when I bring Reggie into bed with me. Every little movement wakes me up and makes me check to make sure he's still alive :lol:. Each to their own, I guess. I wouldn't recommend it as a favourite bonding technique though.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Warning... I was up late last night wrapping gifts and up early because try as I could, my boys didn't make it on the naughty list and the fat guy came to visit us last night and the boys were up at 630!!!! This may only be funny to me. But I'm sharing anyway. 

In the time that I've had hedgehogs, we've also had 2 Boston Terriers, both named Max. I let my oldest boy name them. 
Both Max's were very good at telling me where an escaped hedgehog was hiding or letting me know if someone was close to being a wanderer. We joke about it that they are hedgie hunters. 

Current Max will get to you and start licking your ears. He will do it for over 5 minutes if you can't squirm away from him. He has this dopey personality and has earned the voice of Carl from the movie Slingblade. Quotes from the movie tend to fit him extremely well too. So he goes after the boys ears, my husband in his Max/Carl voice says, "I'd like me some of them fried taters.... Mm-hmmmm" Max goes nuts. Enough to the point where we can't say tater around him or he's looking for the nearest kid. 

So combining all that, if I ever realized my hedgehogs sit like a potato. I would have a double tater hunter... Oh Lordy I need a nap!!!!


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