# Probably a silly question about anointing



## mamalala (Mar 21, 2012)

So Monet anointed for the first time EVER at 5 months old! He apparently doesn't like live mealworms but will eat the freeze dried ones and he anointed after eating one the first time but wouldn't eat more than one. Tonight he ate ALL of them and anointed after each bite. I'm so glad he finally will eat something other than cat food and it was very funny! I read on here they aren't really sure why they anoint but it could be "The foam acts as a toxin to the hedgehog's enemies, causing irritation". I was wondering if it was okay to touch him after he does this or if we should give him a bath or what.

Thank you


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## sayhedgehog (May 18, 2009)

You can touch him.  I usually give Thaddeus a rinse with warm water when he anoints though, only because I don't like the idea of touching spit mixed with whatever he found interesting enough to anoint with. :lol: 

Yay for finding treats he likes!


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

Considering he just annointed with mealie guts, I wouldn't touch him with my bare hands :lol: wipe his quills off with a napkin or something and then you could touch him. As for bath, just a quick warm water rinse should do the trick like sayhedgehog said


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

How much is "all"? Just be very careful when feeding freeze dried, as the process makes the chitin hard to digest thus possibly causing impactions. So personally, I wouldn't feed more than 1 or 2 every few days and watch his poop like a hawk for undigested chitin. 

It may be good to give live ones a try again, now that he's had a taste of them, or even canned.


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## mamalala (Mar 21, 2012)

He had 4. But thank you I will watch him close. I was thinking that too, that I would try the live ones again. When he was a baby I think the fact that they moved freaked him out. LOL He would never even go near them. But now... I'd be curious to see what he does. Still can't get him to eat anything else tho. No apple or rice or chicken, baby food, nothing... He's such a picky little guy.


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## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

Try watermelon. Archimedes won't eat anything but kibble .. and watermelon. Took me about 5-6 weeks of trying pretty much everything before I discovered that he likes that. It seems to be a favorite for a lot of hedgehogs, so if you haven't tried that yet, it might just work.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

If you don't want to give a full bath after an anointing episode, use a warm damp wash cloth. It isn't as stressful as a bath on the hedgehog, and quite often it does a fine job of wiping everything away. Although I usually get that look of "Hey I put that there for a reason" afterwards.


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## hedgieluv (Oct 29, 2011)

I found out, accidentally, that Persephone only likes little mealies, less than 1/2 inch ( a little over a centimeter 1.3 cm). Any bigger and she chews em up and spits em out....ewww. So, I went back to the small ones and she would eat enough to cause tummy troubles. I have to ration them. That's super hard when I'm more excited that she will eat something other than her kibble ( and not spit gross, chewed guts out)than she is. Oh, the things that we put up with for our hedgies. :roll:


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