# Hedgehog freak out?!-HELP!



## JLB92 (Oct 27, 2014)

Hey everyone,
I am a fairly new hedgie owner and need some help! I have had Mr. Sprinkles for about 3 months now and for the most part everything has gone great! Unfortunately, tonight was a different story. My sister and I took him out around the normal time that we always take him out and he was fine for the first 10 minutes and then all of the sudden he went into extreme panic mode. He would not let either of us near him and was huffing and popping so much. We tried to give him a dried mealworm and he hissed like crazy, but ate it as usual. Then he started running towards random places in the room, so I decided to try and pick him up and put him back in his home in hopes that he would calm down. He immediately ran into his igloo and started pushing around the fleece strips, still in panic mode! During the time that he seemed okay, he sprawled out with his belly on the ground and his legs out 2 times as if he was stretching or something. I have never seen him do that until tonight. He didn't stay sprawled out for more then a second though. I am really worried that something is wrong. Please help!!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Is there anything that smelled different about one of you guys or the environment? Any strong scents? What was he doing right before he freaked out? Were one of you guys holding him, or was he down on the floor? Was there a loud noise or anything that scared him? Once he's calm again, get him back out and check him over for anything unusual. Look for sores, red spots, anything that might show if he was bitten by something, and also for quills that might be poking him.

I'm guessing he had a reason for freaking out, but it was likely a very quick or temporary thing, so it might be hard to figure out what caused it. I wouldn't get too concerned though, unless you do find some kind of injury on him, or if he starts doing it more often.


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## JLB92 (Oct 27, 2014)

Hi Lilysmommy, 
Thank you for responding! The only thing different as far as smell goes that I could think of would be the fact that we carved pumpkins prior to taking Mr. Sprinkles out, but we washed our hands thoroughly with the soap that we have been using since we brought him home. My family has a dog as well, but she is harmless and is afraid of Mr. Sprinkles, so she doesn't even go into the room he is in. Last night, she was playing with her toy though, while we had him out, so perhaps the loud squeaking of her toy was freaking him out? She was not playing with it for the first few minutes that we had him out and that is when he seemed fine. When I lifted up his igloo to take him out, he was hissing and popping a bit, but let me pick him up. We always put out a fleece blanket on the floor for him to play on and such, so I put him down on the floor and he seemed to be acting normal. My sister fed him a few tiny pieces of boiled chicken which he has had before and loves it. A few minutes later is when he started to freak out. I figured maybe he wanted to hide to calm down, so I tried putting his large cardboard tube near him and he went in it but panicked and backed his way out of it and started running to random places, so that's when I decided to put him back in his cleaned home. 

I did notice that yesterday morning when I checked on his water level and took out his wheel to clean it, a few fleece strips looked to be dragged out of his igloo which is kind on unusual. Also, he has been losing a few of his quills, so I am not sure if it is possible for him to be quilling or if he has mites =(


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