# Chloe's Sudden Personality Change



## AmandaDee (Dec 17, 2011)

So I got Chloe about a week ago. She was born November 5th.  

My friend, the person I bought Chloe from handled her every day. I saw her around the beginning of December... I actually picked her specifically because she's the only hoglet who didn't curl into a ball when I picked her up, and she licked me and then self-annointed. She was a very friendly hedgehog.

My friend brought her to me this past Thursday morning. Prior to her coming I went and purchased a large cage, bedding, an igloo, wheel, cat food (wet and dry), food and water dish, and a purple tube thing for her to play in. The cage is 1x3, and it has a second level which is about 6in by 1ft. I put her in her cage and she explored. She walked through the tube, came out, went into her igloo, dug around for a bit, and then came out. She ate some food, and walked up to her wheel, ran on that. I took her out of the cage and I was able to pick her up with just my hands, because she didn't curl into a ball. She walked around and explored my living room and kitchen. I lay on the ground with her and she crawled into my fleece footed pajamas and curled into my armpit and lay there for about 10 minutes when I started getting uncomfortable and had to take her out. She didn't seem to like my mom, when I tried extending my hands to give her to my mom she still stayed open, but she would lower her brow so her quills covered her eyes, it was quite cute, actually. 

I worked on Friday, so I put her in her cage, and when I came home 10 hours later I went to take her out, only she curled up into a ball and started clicking at me. All I could do was hold her on my lap in a blanket. That night I noticed she had poop all over her paws so I gave her a quick bath. No soap, just put her in the water, let her swim around and rubbed her paws and belly until she was poop free. She was more open after that, she stayed uncurled unless I tried to go near her belly, then she'd curl up. 

Sunday she stayed curled up all night as well, clicking when I even so much as grazed her with the tip of my finger. I did notice, however, that there was poo all over her wheel so I decided to give her a proper bath. (I know you can`t do it too often because they can get dry skin but I figured since I only rinsed her the first time it was okay to give her a proper bath.) I filled the tub again, gave her a bath, washed her quills, paws and belly. Then as I was cuddling with her in the towel she bit me! I don`t think she was upset (at least I hope not!) and I`m thinking it was just the scent of the baby shampoo on my hands, because she did sniff THEN she bit me.  Monday night and tonight all I`ve been able to do was hold her in her blanket close to me. 

Is it normal for hedgies to go through such a dramatic personality change? Is it because she finally realizes shes not going home and I'm not just a visitor? I realize the way she's behaving now is normal for some hedgies, but I'm just curious and slightly worried because it's such a drastic change from how she was before. 

So sorry for the long post, I just figured it`d be smart to post all the details so my question could be answered.  Thanks in advance!


----------



## chelsea.kang (Dec 2, 2011)

How old is she? Is she quilling at all?


----------



## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Welcome and congrats! 5 weeks was a little on the young side to have been taken from breeders... But anyways...
1)Is she eating well? Same food as she was eating while at the breeders? Since she's so young, have you actually seen if she can eat properly? We recently had another owner here who had to take their hoglet at 5 weeks and found that her baby was actually having trouble with the kibble and had to break it up. Have you tried counting her kibble so you know exactly how much she is eating?

2)Have you monitored her water intake? Do you have a bottle or bowl for her?

3)You say that there's a second floor, are ALL edges, including the ramp enclosed? Hedgehogs have really poor depth perception and are known to "suicide dive" off edges. And sometimes, even a fall off a few inches can cause serious injury. We've had a hedgie fall from a few inches, broke her humerous bone and died a short while later. So make sure all edges are blocked off.

4)Do you have heating for her? What is the temperature at? Hedgehogs are best in the 73-78F range. Any lower than 73, they can go into hibernation, and they lack the ability to come back out of hibernation, thus making it fatal.

5)Do you have a lighting schedule for her? Have you allowed her actual "sleeping" time? From your post, it's hard to get a grasp of what her schedule is like. Hedgehogs are nocturnal and they need 12-14 hours of "daylight" which should be supplemented with a normal desklamp since it is winter. (shorter daylight cycles = winter = hibernation time). And then she needs at least 6-8 hours of darkness to do her thing and party in her cage. Also, babies sleep ALOT, probably close to 20 hours a day. So it's possible that the constant taking her out and doing stuff with her is not allowing her to get all the sleep she needs, thus making her one cranky baby. 

6)Now that I think more about it, that's not a very big cage. Hedgehogs need a minimum of 2 sq feet AFTER all the toys, wheel, food/water dishes and house is placed in the cage.

7)When you say... "let her swim" how high was the water? Many hedgehogs are hydrophobic, and absolutely hate the water(but only put up with it because we give them lots of treats to make up for it later). Putting her in deep water may end up terrifying her. Also, what sort of shampoo did you use? As a rule of thumb, anything with the word "shampoo" is too harsh and too drying. They tend to be scented too and their noses are much too sensitive for scented anything. Aveeno oatmeal washes(as well as the generic brand) are the stuff that is commonly used here. 

I apologize if I'm covering stuff you already know, or have already done. But with no other information, I'm just covering the basics so they can be ruled out quickly. That way, we can get to the root of the problem as soon as possible. ^_^


----------

