# our new hedgie



## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

My girlfriend Sue and I just brought our new little friend home yesterday. We'd been visiting him for a few weeks so he could get to know us, and he really took well to Sue. He'd unball within a few seconds of being put into her hands, and would crawl on her arms and shoulders, before eventually falling asleep ("crashing") in her arms. I haven't actually held him myself yet, because I startle easily and worry that I might jump when he does that "sneezing" sound. But I would always pet and stroke him when Sue held him, and let him sniff and lick my hands. 
We got him home yesterday, and had his huge new cage all set up for him. He has bowls for his food, water, and treats, and he has a couple small cat toys, a toilet paper tube, a big purple igloo, and I even hand-made him a cardboard tunnel. He took to the toilet paper tube the minute he saw it. It surprised me how fast he started playing with it, sticking his head in it and walking around... I didn' realize that was so instinctual!
He's a healthy eater, and LOVED the little piece of banana I gave him this morning. He's been burrowing in his bedding (though we bought him a fleece liner today), and we can't wait for him to wake up and try out his new wheel. 
He seems like a happy, healthy little hedgehog boy (he's 2 months old), and I look forward to getting more comfortable with him so I can hold him and play with him myself. :mrgreen:


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

Congrats, it seems you are doing well so far. Don't be afraid of him tho, the poking doesn't really hurt, and as soon as they are in your hands, they usually stop the snuffing.

It is best to start off slow. Have sue put him in your hands on his back, and as soon as you feel uncomfortable have her remove him. Slowly you should be able to better trust each other, and get used to how each other feels.

other than that... POST SOME PICTURES PLEASE!


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

Here's today's update... Crash LOVES his wheel. It took him a couple tries to get the hang of it, but once he did, there was no stopping him. He was up most of the night running as fast as he could. I love the click-click-click sound his little feet make as he runs. I did pick him up yesterday, but just to hand him to Sue. She was really proud of me though. Our roommate, Craig, came in to get a look at him, and Crash promptly bit the hand that Craig offered to let him smell. Craig said it didn't hurt, but I'm still dreading the inevitable moment when I'll probably get bit (for annointing purposes, I'm told).
I fed him a tiny spinach leaf, which he hesitated with, but did eventually eat. Obviously he prefers bananas to spinach. But he did enjoy a little piece of apple.
He's been sleeping all day today so far, I can't wait for him to wake up so I can watch him play some more. Sue says that when she sees me watching Crash, she can tell that I adore him. I just hope he gets friendlier soon, because I hear everyone talk about their hedgies and how sweet and cuddly they are, and I want to be friends with Crash like that too. :mrgreen:


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

Robinspoiler said:


> I did pick him up yesterday, but just to hand him to Sue. She was really proud of me though.


Don't feel bad. My boyfriend still won't pick him up unless I actually hand my hedgie to him. I was sick last week and he was freaking out because I was making him do the leg checks. There was a lot of hedgie bag handling going on. (We've had him 8 months so you'd think he'd be used to it by now.)



Robinspoiler said:


> Our roommate, Craig, came in to get a look at him, and Crash promptly bit the hand that Craig offered to let him smell. Craig said it didn't hurt, but I'm still dreading the inevitable moment when I'll probably get bit (for annointing purposes, I'm told).


Sounds like Craig is rather tasty. :lol: To avoid this in the future, wash your hands with unscented soap before handling him, and have your friends to do so too. That way there are no tasty smells that might prompt tasting.



Robinspoiler said:


> I fed him a tiny spinach leaf, which he hesitated with, but did eventually eat. Obviously he prefers bananas to spinach. But he did enjoy a little piece of apple.


Try to avoid feeding a variety of treats at one time. His tummy is going to be stressed from the move anyway, so you should wait to feed treats for a week or so. After that, introduce one treat at a time (one a day) so that if it causes an upset tummy you'll know which one did it and can avoid that food or give less of it.



Robinspoiler said:


> He's been sleeping all day today so far, I can't wait for him to wake up so I can watch him play some more. Sue says that when she sees me watching Crash, she can tell that I adore him. I just hope he gets friendlier soon, because I hear everyone talk about their hedgies and how sweet and cuddly they are, and I want to be friends with Crash like that too. :mrgreen:


It sounds like you're already making progress, so I'm sure it'll be sooner than you think. 

Congratulations on the little guy!


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

Just curious... he's been asleep ALL day today. Yesterday about this time and in the morning, he was up and active, eating and playing. I know he was up all last night running on his wheel and is no doubt tired, but should he really be sleeping this much? We actually picked him up earlier today to make sure he was okay (and I even held him myself for a couple minutes), and let him walk around on our bed to make sure he wasn't wobbly or anything, which he wasn't. But when we put him back in his cage, he nibbled a little bit of apple, then went right back into his igloo and went to sleep again.
Should we be concerned?


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

My hedgie sleeps ALL day. The ONLY time he comes out is when I turn out all the lights and everything is quiet. For the most part, hedgehogs tend to be nocturnal, though it is possible to adjust them to be dinural. Even when I take him out at night for bonding time, he'll just cuddle up to me and sleep. So it's perfectly natural that your baby sleeps all day, he might even be annoyed at being woken up :lol: Mine gives me grumpy faces when I wake him up at night.

And babies sleep A LOT.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Babies usually sleep a lot anyway. If he was up a lot the night before, he might've worn himself all out, so is sleeping in extra long today.


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

lol, typical hedgie parents =D

I am glad you are so concerned for your hog. If your hedgie is still a baby it needs its sleep, and will usually sleep 12-14 hours a day.

Hedgies are most active at sunset and sunrise, so your hedgie will most likely sleep all day.

Personally vex sleeps from 5:40am-12:00pm and then from 1:00pm-7:40pm.

He wakes up at lunch for his treats.


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

So bottom line, his enormous amounts of sleep today is not cause for concern?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Exactly.  As long as he's still eating and drinking, he's perfectly fine. Sometimes they don't even run on their wheel much for the first couple of weeks.


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

Crash did wake up for a bit tonight. It was like 9:00 PM, and he got up, ate a lot of his food, drank a bunch of water, and did a couple spins on his wheel. He then went right back to sleep in his house. In all, i'd say he was up for 20 minutes.
I did notice that he is scratching himself a lot, or what seems to me like a lot. We've brushed him a couple times in the last 2 days, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any fleas or ticks. Is it normal for him to do that?
Also, I put him on the bed next to Sue so we could look at him. He pooped, then turned around and ate it. Is this normal? Will it hurt him? Why would he do that? Should we make him stop, and if so, how?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Hm...As far as I know, animals usually eat poop if it smells good, because it might have nutrients in it. Maybe he didn't completely digest one of the treats you gave him, so the poop smelled like that treat? What kind of food are you feeding him, for his main diet? I've also heard that dogs will do that if they eat their food too fast, because they don't have time to digest it properly, so it smells exactly like what they just ate out of their bowl.


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

It's a home-made food the pet store makes for their hedgehogs. I know, I know... I keep hearing pet stores = bad, but we'd been going for a month to visit Crash before we brought him home, both to give him a chance to get to know us and also to make sure the store owner was taking care of him correctly. They seem to know their stuff, and answered every question we had.
The food has the little kibble pieces as well as tiny bits of dried fruit (we checked teaspoon by teaspoon and found no raisins) and bits of bugs. No vitacraft for our little guy!
Also, we bought a dietary protein supplement called "bugs n' berries", which says to add a tiny pinch to his food every couple days. So he's had a bit of that too.
I change his water twice a day (more if he's put anything into it like his bedding or food), and I pick up his poop out of his cage anytime I see any.
So... regardless of _why_ he's eating his poop, will it hurt him?


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## azyrios (Feb 2, 2009)

Some animals in the wild will eat their stool in order to get more nutrients out of it. In the wild it can get hard to find food, so eating their stool may keep them alive longer.
Hedgehogs may do this because they are scavengers. 

Make sure he has food in his bowl CONSTANTLY. Let him free feed, and he should choose that over his stool.


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

I think I would be asking the pet store what exactly is in the food. People have different ideas what is "nutritional" for a hedgehog. In fact, when I first got my hedgie I just bought some mix off the breeder because I assumed she would have a food that met the nutritional needs--I shouldn't have assumed that. When I later asked what was in the food, there was quite a mix of foods there but all of them were of low nutritional value with tons of fillers. I switched him off it and made a more nutritional mix of my own. The food they have in there might not be nutritionally sound, which could definitely make what azyrios said true about nutritional deficiencies causing the problem.

A mix of 2-3 high quality cat foods from this list viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15 is the best way to go. I would recommend slowly switching him to a mix of a few of those.


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## ILuvCrash (Mar 21, 2009)

Crash is doing great, he's eating well and LOVES his wheel, which of course means no sleep for me after work at night :lol: Robin is awesome with Crash and is picking him up and holding him, petting and brushing him. Watching them bond is great. My boys thought it would be cute to use me as a playground at 7:30 this morning hehe. I'm lucky to have these 2 guys in my life  Thanks for all the information and the warm welcome to the three of us.


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

*latest Crash update*

Crash will be 3 months old tomorrow! He's become really friendly toward me and Sue. He'll curl up next to either of us and go to sleep, he's super-calm in my hands (yes, I hold him a lot now, no longer nervous), and he'll eat his little chunks of apple or blueberries right out of our fingers.
He's a lunatic on his wheel at night, and adores his tunnel. In fact, ever since Sue brought him a tunnel home from work (a cardboard tube), he's abandoned his igloo and taken up permanent residence in the tunnel.
He loves to look up at us from his cage and talk to us. He's become a little chatterbox, and always sounds happy.
Today it was finally warm enough to take him outside, and I think he didn't care much for it. It was the first time he'd ever been outside at all, and I'm pretty sure it confused him. I set him on the ground, and he just stood there looking at me. Finally, after about 60 seconds, I felt sorry for him and picked him back up and took him back in the house. We'll try again sometime soon, but I think he was just overwhelmed by the strangeness of it.
Also, he finally lost his first quill, which Sue has in a locket she wears around her neck (yes, we're dorky hedgehog parents).
I should mention, Crash's full name is Crash N. Charlesworth the Third. Obviously, we just call him Crash. But lately, we've just been calling him "Little NomNom". I mention this because I'm wondering if a hedgehog is capable of learning its name, and if we're confusing him by calling him different names all the time.
Overall, Crash is a joy to be around, and I think he feels the same about us.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

The food sounds like Brown's, which is nearly as bad as Vitakraft. Do you have a picture so we can see?


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## Robinspoiler (Mar 21, 2009)

I don't actually have a picture, but it's not a packaged commercial food. It's a mix the woman we bought him from makes herself. She says it's the same stuff the breeder she gets her hedgies from feeds them.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

You still might want to find out what she puts in the mix, though...I recently picked up a hedgehog from a biology teacher who said she was feeding the hedgie her own "mix", which just turned out to be ferret food. :roll:


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