# Age of hedgehogs



## msredhead (Sep 28, 2012)

Hi all, is there a way to tell the age of your hedgehog (besides a breeder telling you?)

Here is the reason for my question:

I bought Auri from a breeder in August. The breeder said she was 9 weeks old. 

Oddities:

1. She was bigger than the other girl she was caged with at the breeder, but the breeder said she was generally the food hog, but she was roughly 25% bigger.

2. She is very well mannered with people. Never gets scared and is generally very laid back. She didn't even act stressed when we got her home, and let us play with her right away. She's a silly girl! When I was at the breeders place, the smaller hedgie was very timid and balled when I was holding her. This was not the case with Auri.

3. She gave birth to a litter almost 2 weeks ago and all 5 babies survived and are doing very well. We got her from the breeder pregnant and had a surprise litter (don't worry, I already posted about it). I've heard the stories about first time mothers, but she seems to be a seasoned vet.

4. I saw a posting from the same breeder selling 6 week old hedgies on my local craigslist. Now...this is what made my spidey senses tingle. A 6 week old litter only 5 weeks after your last litter was weaned? This seemed odd to me.

So... any opinions or suggestions? I will be upset if we did not get a 9 week old hedgie (I love her to death!) and this breeder is a jerk.


----------



## hedgielover (Oct 30, 2008)

I would also be suspicious if I were in your situation. Unfortunately I don't think there is anyway to find out the age of a hedgehog. I think that if they are quilling that is the only way to tell that they are under a year to 1 year old. Otherwise I don't think you can tell. This sounds like a really irresponsible breeder.


----------



## Tabi (Jun 24, 2012)

I wouldn't buy from them again. They are irresponsible and, to put it nicely, STUPID. It's a possibility that she is 9 weeks old and is just a sweet heart. How much does she weigh and how big is she in comparison to a DVD box? A pic next to one will do the trick!


----------



## moxieberry (Nov 30, 2011)

It's already clear that the breeder is irresponsible for housing a female that age with a male. But, that aside, the rest of what you noticed can go either way in terms of how old Auri is.

1. Size between litter mates can vary, and if it's same-age babies from different litters, the variation can be even bigger. Our girl, Anubis, is from the same litter as Xeno (who's not technically part of our herd; he belongs to Nick's sister and is housed in the hedgehog room when she's home from college on weekends/vacations). Anyway - Anubis was over 200g at 6 weeks, and Xeno was barely 140g. He was the runt. Currently Anubis is full grown at 390-400g, and Xeno is full grown at around 290g.

2. You can't know for sure that being chill and not grumpy has any connection to age. Of the 11 hedgehogs we've had starting at 6-7 weeks old (12 counting Xeno), five of those have had virtually no grumpiness during quilling. One of those five is Delilah, who we kept from a litter of three. Delilah is 8-9 weeks old right now, no grumpiness, never raises her quills, never huffs, never balls up. Her sister and brother (who both went to new homes at around 8 weeks old) were very different; the sister was sort of mid-range grumpiness and more reserved, taking a little while to be comfortable, and the brother would pop and click and stay in a ball (though he was better on some days, and was very mellow and sweet prior to quilling) and it would take a good 10 minutes to get him semi-relaxed when we would take him out.

3. Not sure of her DOB, but if you got her in August at 9 weeks (supposedly) and she gave birth 2 weeks ago, that would put her at somewhere around 11 weeks at the youngest (if you got her at the end of August) or 15 weeks at the oldest (if you got her at the beginning of August) when she gave birth. It's still not good for their bodies, but the body of a 11-15 week old female is more mature and closer to being full-grown, to the point that being able to nurse and care for a litter isn't exactly surprising. Most of the time when things don't go well for young mothers, it's that they don't know what to do, but especially if she was over 12 weeks (3 months) when she gave birth, it makes sense that she had maternal instinct kick in. It's definitely not good for her to have gotten pregnant so young, and the fact that the babies survived means it's even more work for her young body, but being able to give birth and successfully nurse a litter doesn't automatically make me thing that she's older than the breeder said.

4. Depends on how large of a breeder it is, and how many females they have. I would see the craigslist thing as more sketchy because I haven't seen you mention that it's a USDA licensed breeder, and having new litters so soon suggests multiple females - more than the "under 4 females" that's exempt from a USDA license. (Unless you live outside the US, in which case the USDA thing doesn't apply.) Anyway, it's completely realtistic for a larger breeder to have a new litter ready to go a month later; or they could even be not so large, but have several females that are bred closer together, followed by a longer break without available babies. Regardless of it being something sketchy about the breeder (and the sketchiness has already been established), there's no reason to think that it means your girl is older than they said.


----------



## msredhead (Sep 28, 2012)

Moxie, thanks so much for your input! And in regards to her size, when we got her, my boyfriend said she was the same size as the hedgehog he previously had that was around 2 when his roommate took her. To my knowledge the breeder had 2 females, but from the way she was talking about her next litter it wasn't due until this month. I do not know if she had a license, as I did not ask (my fault, I know). 

But it is good to know that size varies. We have seen quills falling out and growing in, and from what another post said it could be a good way to tell if she's younger!


----------

