# Matting on Fur, Drastic change in behavior



## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Hi. I am worried about my hedgie Cookie.

She's turning 4 months old this 17th and I've had her for 2 months now. She's always been a tame one. She was quilling at the time I got her but still her temperament was quite good. She'd let me hold her and pet her from the start and she never balled up. She rarely her quills and she even lets me give her a tummy rub. She sleeps all morning but she's active at night, running on her wheel and making a mess out of her whole cage. I don't even have any problems with her appetite, she loves mealies, fruits and cooked meat alike. The only time she doesn't eat that much is when she's quilling, which lasts only a few days. They sometimes get green/mucousy poop which usually goes away quickly.

Recently however there has been a dramatic change in her behavior. I thought it was just the stress of the travel because I brought her and my other hedgie Kreme with me to my hometown which is 1 hour away by plane. We stayed there for 2 weeks and we got back earlier this month. I also noticed that there has been alot of quills lying around her cage so I thought she might be quilling again. Her only downside really was that she has a tendency to poop on me.

But ever since we got back she has been very irritable. Her quills are always raised and she balls up which she never did before. She hisses when we try to pick her up. She hasn't been eating that much either (although I think her appetite's back coz she ate alot the past 2 nights). She even sometimes refuses to eat mealies. I just thought she's just going through a really bad quilling. 

Today I woke her up to give her some mealies and I noticed that half of her face was matted with something creamy white that had hardened. I tried to remove it with my fingers but it won't come off. I gave her a bath and scrubbed at her face (which really stressed her out by the way) but the thing's really stubborn. Plus when I tried to scratch it with my nail some of the her came off with it. :shock: I stopped trying to remove it then. Checked Coo skin under her quills and there was no scabbing or flaking, she's clean. The thing's only on her face, and I noticed some of it on the other side too. I am worried.

Another thing is that she's been breathing weirdly as well but I only noticed it when I got back from Malaysia last April 16. She and my other hedgie Kreme stayed with a friend of mine for 10 days and during that time they lived in a cages with pinewood shavings. Both she and Kreme sometimes make this high pitched sound with their noses and I wonder if they developed a respiratory problem or if it's just normal. They don't always make that sound, only when I have them in my hands and they're smelling me I guess. 

Here are some info on my hedgies...

1. Kreme lives in an enclosed wire cage with felt cloth cage liners. He has a wheel, 2 ceramic bowls for food and water, a hedgie bag and microfiber mitten shaped like a hedgie, a floor tile to cool him off, several balls and toys and a litter box filled with wood shavings and paper. Cookie lives in a much bigger cage with cotton cloth cage liners, a sand box (sand is from the beach and she loves to dig and roll in it), litter box, a "house" (like an igloo but has a flat ceiling), a wooden playhouse, several toys, bills and tunnels, a wheel, floor tile and two plastic containers for food and water. While staying in my hometown they stayed in a cage made of canvas, they took turns playing on the wheel.
2. While we were also on vacation(April 23-May4), I often brought them along with me to play in the beach and in the park. 
3. Usually I let them out of their cages once a day and let them have a supervised play in a pen with my 2 guineapigs and rabbit. 
4. They do scratch themselves, but usually only when they're quilling.
5. I bathe them once a week with oatmeal soap. 
6. Their staple food cat food, but they get an abundance of fruits (banana, apples, dragonfruit), insects (mealies, dark beetles and supers), chicken, eggs, pork, fish, variety of seafood, rice, corned beef and balut (fertilized duck embryo that is boiled)
7. It has been a very hot summer here in the Philippines, even reaching 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F)at one point. The room they're kept in is the coolest room in the house where they get enough daylight without direct sunlight. It has been cooler lately because it had started raining. It is usually bright here from 6am-6pm
8. I've been having problems with ants getting in their cages and trying to eat they're food.
9. I haven't weighed my hedgies yet. I still need to buy a scale for them. They don't look thin though. 
10. They sneeze during bath time, which i am not sure if normal.
11. I usually give them 50 kibbles a day. They usually leave 2-3 pieces.
12. I read in the guidelines about licking noses? Cookie does this. Should I be troubled?
13. Not sure about their water intake because it's too hot in here.
14. No rashes, no visible flaking, no bare spots. There has been alot of quills in their cages but these has bulbs at the end so I guess they're normal.
15. Both are asleep in the morning unless waken up. Cookie will promptly look for a place to hide in and sleep when taken out of the cage in the morning. She doesn't want to move around when someone is watching. Kreme will explore once properly awake but will go straight to his sleeping area when placed back in his cage. 
16. I know I should consult a vet but the nearest one that knows about hedgies is a little far away and charges a little out of my budget so I'd like to reserve going there for emergencies.

Appreciate the help!


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## Guest (May 15, 2012)

to add to this from your other post, since you let them have play time together, is it possible they mated and this is causing the change in behavior?


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## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Lilyhogs said:


> to add to this from your other post, since you let them have play time together, is it possible they mated and this is causing the change in behavior?


Oh I keep a close watch on them during playtime. I make sure to take Kreme away when he gets too near Cookie and he starts singing. And it's been awhile since they had playtime together because Kreme has been persistent on courting Cookie. The change in behavior actually started on the day we traveled back home. I was wondering if the plane ride caused her to be hissy. 

On a curious note though, does mating really change a hedgie's behavior?


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## Tara151 (Jan 9, 2012)

elithranielle said:


> While staying in my hometown they stayed in a cage made of canvas, they took turns playing on the wheel.


Did they stay in the same cage or separate ones during your hometown visit?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

You really need to keep them separated. Hedgehogs can mate very quickly, if you turn away for even a second. With them having been out and around each other, and possibly kept together, she could already be pregnant (and they shouldn't be bred for the first time until 6 months). Even if you're constantly watching them when they're out together, it's likely stressful on them both to be around each other and not be able to mate. It'd be better for both of them if you kept playtimes separate and kept them away from each other from now on. I'm not sure about the crusty stuff on her fur, but I would definitely put her on pregnancy watch until 50 days from the last time you had her around your boy. The grumpiness could be from possible pregnancy, from quilling, from the trip, any number of things. I would just hang in there and see if she calms down over time.


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## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Lilysmommy said:


> You really need to keep them separated. Hedgehogs can mate very quickly, if you turn away for even a second. With them having been out and around each other, and possibly kept together, she could already be pregnant (and they shouldn't be bred for the first time until 6 months). Even if you're constantly watching them when they're out together, it's likely stressful on them both to be around each other and not be able to mate. It'd be better for both of them if you kept playtimes separate and kept them away from each other from now on. I'm not sure about the crusty stuff on her fur, but I would definitely put her on pregnancy watch until 50 days from the last time you had her around your boy. The grumpiness could be from possible pregnancy, from quilling, from the trip, any number of things. I would just hang in there and see if she calms down over time.


Thank you for the advice. She's pretty much back to normal now. I will still keep her on pregnancy watch just to be sure, but I think she might be over her hissy stage. It must have been the quilling. Her appetite's back in full force as well. 

The crustiness is also almost gone. I read another post about the white crusty stuff and they said it was "boy stuff". :shock: Cookie's a girl though s I don't know. I wonder if it was an allergic reaction to the sand she's playing in.


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## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Tara151 said:


> elithranielle said:
> 
> 
> > While staying in my hometown they stayed in a cage made of canvas, they took turns playing on the wheel.
> ...


Oh they were in separate canvas cages. Although now that I think about it, my grandmother had this tendency to open their cages and watch them during wee hours in the morning. As far as I'm aware, thrice Kreme went on a prison break, and Cookie once. Now I am wondering if it was possible that they were both out at the same time once.:S


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## Guest (May 17, 2012)

you need to treat cookie as if shes pregnant, mark on the calendar , your not in the clear until you hit 55 days from the last time she was with a male, average is 35-49 days


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Since hedgehogs are induced ovalators, you have been forcing her to be in heat this entire time by allowing playtime and close contact with a male. It's possible that her temperment changes as she matures. 

You also have to watch the stress placed upon her body by all of the sexual tension. It's not healthy for either party. And you don't know what stress this is putting on her body by constantly being in heat, as it's not natural. 

You should stress to your family that male + female = babies = cost more $. Especially if something goes wrong. You could end up losing cookie, the babies, or both mom and babies. Especially since your vet is so far away. It may be too late by the time you get her there.


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## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Lilyhogs said:


> you need to treat cookie as if shes pregnant, mark on the calendar , your not in the clear until you hit 55 days from the last time she was with a male, average is 35-49 days


Thank you. I'll do that.


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## elithranielle (Apr 14, 2012)

Immortalia said:


> Since hedgehogs are induced ovalators, you have been forcing her to be in heat this entire time by allowing playtime and close contact with a male. It's possible that her temperment changes as she matures.
> 
> You also have to watch the stress placed upon her body by all of the sexual tension. It's not healthy for either party. And you don't know what stress this is putting on her body by constantly being in heat, as it's not natural.
> 
> You should stress to your family that male + female = babies = cost more $. Especially if something goes wrong. You could end up losing cookie, the babies, or both mom and babies. Especially since your vet is so far away. It may be too late by the time you get her there.


I'm sorry. I didn't really think about that when I'd let them play with my other pets. At that time Kreme wasn't showing any interest in Cookie so I thought it would be fine for them to be in the same enclosure during playtime as long as I keep an eye on them. It wasn't really hard since after the initial sniffing and getting to know each other, they were quite happy to go their separate ways, Cookie going for the nearest hiding place to sleep and Kreme climbing everything he could find. But the last time they played together was over a month ago, well before her temperament changed. I've stopped letting them play together for the same reason everyone here mentioned, Kreme started showing signs of sexual maturity. And I've stopped letting Cookie participate in playtime altogether since she's been really crabby. Kreme still gets to go out and stretch his legs in the playpen coz the rabbits and guinea pigs know well enough not to bother him. He's quite relaxed during playtime so I didn't think he was stressed.

Cookie and Kreme are housed in different cages, but are in the same room in the house.Is there a minimum distance that should be considered? Sometimes Kreme starts singing even though Cookie's nowhere near him. Like once, Cookie was sleeping in her cage when Kreme started singing while he was running around the room.

My family knows that Cookie and Kreme shouldn't be together. My grandmother though is very old and she didn't really intend any harm, she only wanted to watch them inside their cages. She just kept forgetting to close the cage properly afterwards and Kreme is a notorious climber and escape artist. She's quite the animal lover and I even felt bad for her when I left to return home with my hedgies. My mom and my brothers are well informed and know well enough not to let them mingle.


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