# two broken quills



## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

Hi everyone another question for you. 

I've had Quigley about a month now and in that time he's lost three quills. I know from reading the forum that this in it self is not a cause for concern. However only one of the quills had a root (little ball thing on the end). The other two looked broken off. I know that lost quills without a root is a sign for mites but also that normally if a hedgehog has mites there are other signs and they lose many more quills than two a month. I check under his liner and his blanket everyday and never find any quills so I know he is not losing more without me knowing. 

So I guess I'm not concerned with the amount of quill loss but just that two were broken. Is there a reason for hedgehogs to have broken quills every so often? 

Also he is not eating very much (averaging about 7 pellets a night for the last four or five days + two meal worms he's eaten as much as 40 pellets in a night and as little as 3 always with 2-3 meal worms). Finally he has mild to moderate dry skin (I've been putting flax seed oil on him and in the rinse water for his bath. He gets an oatmeal bath once every week or two). 

I'm probably just being paranoid and overly anxious but I can't help but worry about the little guy. Please let me know if this sounds normal.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Do you have something in the cage that could be causing the breakage? A tube that isn't quite big enough and your hedgehog brushes its quills against it (or something simialr?).


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

He doesn't have a tube in his cage and I can't think of anything else that could be breaking them. But sometimes he's pretty violent with his hissing and bouncing (when he's in a ball). Could that break them?


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## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

I saw two more broken quills on his back yesterday during his bath. I haven't found them in the cage but the ones on his back end about half way up and look likes it's been broken off. The only thing I can think of is he is breaking them when he hisses in his cage. 

Sometimes it's like he has nightmares and hisses and pops when he is sleeping. He does this when it is quiet and there is no-one near the cage so he can't be hissing at us. 

Is it common for hedgehogs to have nightmares? I've never read about it before.


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

What does he sleep under? And what kind of wheel does he have?
It doesn't necessarily have to be a tube that's too small. It could be too small of an opening for an igloo or something like that. Or maybe even trying to run under his wheel or something similar.


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