# Help! My hedgehog losing a lot of fur!



## xinyi202 (Jun 18, 2013)

My hedgehog Cookie is around 2 years old. I noticed about a week ago that he's been losing A LOT of fur. I don't see any bald spot but everytime he sits in one spot, or that i pick him up, i see 5-15 hair on my hand or floor. I also noticed some white dots, not sure if its mites or dry skin. 

He doesn't really scratch much, but maybe a few times at night? Not sure. 

Idk what is causing his rapid fur shedding. 

He doesn't losing much quills, maybe 0-1 every day or every two day or so. But I think he's been shedding quill a few more than back when i first got it. 

I mostly use just water to bath him. and also, I changed his food to IAMS kitten proactive. Maybe its the food? 
Not sure... I'm scared he's gonna shed all his fur. I switched back to the chicken soup for adault cat dry food (recommended ones), but I'm not sure if IAMS the cause of it. 

He's been eating and poopings regularly and runs at night regularly. 

help please please pleasee!


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## Chloethehedgie7 (Jul 24, 2013)

Hey. 

You need to use shampoo everytime you give a hedgie a bath, because how do they get clean? They can get dandruff from that. Also, IAMS cat food is actually really bad food. I use Authority Sensitive Soulution Turkey flavor, mine likes it and is sooo healthy, no corn. Corn is a filler not a healthy ingredient. IAMS is really bad about their ingredients. So is Meow Mix, Pedigree and other foods. I would go with Wellness or Authority. I like Chicken Noodle Soup For The Cat Lovers Soul. (Long name, I know  ) It is very healthy and ideal for hedgehogs. Blue Buffalo is very very healthy, but... actually hedgehogs get odd feces from it. I recommend Blue Buffalo, but not on Hedgehogs.
So, these are things you need to do:
Get Oster Oatmeal Naturals it's Vitamin Enriched, and smells sooooo yummy!! Great for hedgehogs.
Get either, Authority, Wellness or Chicken Noodle Soup For The Cat Lover's Soul dry cat food.  That is what I would recommend since I am a breeder with lots of excperience. If that doesn't help then you might want to go to a Vet.
Also, you can sooth the hedgehog by putting Olive Oil on him.

Hope this helped, this is fantastic information. God bless,
Katie


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

I wouldn't use shampoo every time you give him a bath as it can seriously dry out their skin. I use plain water for the daily baths and soap once a week or every other week.

It's good that you switched back to the Chicken Soup food, as that could have contributed to it. If you look at the skin flakes can you tell if any of them are moving? That's a sure fire way to know if they're mites.

Have you noticed any change in behavior or activity level?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Agreed with Abbys regarding baths/shampoo. Another thing you can try for bathing is getting whole uncooked oatmeal, putting a handful in a sock or nylon & squishing it in the water until the water is cloudy. It can help moisturize dry skin. Olive or flaxseed oil on the food can also help. You can put a few drops of oil in the rinse water after a bath as well, just be careful taking him out - it can make them pretty slippery!

A couple of possibilities for causes - it's starting to get towards fall/winter, which means the air in a lot places is getting drier. That might be a contributing factor. The change in seasons can also cause hair/quill shedding in some hedgehogs, though I'm not sure it'd be a response for summer-to-winter changes.

Does his skin look strange at all? Does it look crusty, have red dots, or any other colors (yellow, orange, etc.)? Or does it just look dry? If he had any kind of skin infection, I would expect him to be losing quills or showing problems on the quill side of him, so I wouldn't guess it'd be that, but just in case. Mites would also cause quill loss as well...I really would guess it's just dry skin, but it's good to rule out all of the other possibilities too.

Also agreed on the food thing - Chicken Soup is a lot better quality than Iams. Was there a specific reason for switching? I noticed you said it's the kitten version, are you trying to get more fat in his diet?


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## xinyi202 (Jun 18, 2013)

Well, his chicken soup food is about to expire, and I tried buying a different brand, and he seemed to like it just fine, but I didn't realize it might cause a problem. 


I'll just get the same chicken soup light and I just went to the store and bought a Aveeno bottle. There were two versions, one is a dried packet and one is a bottle. It said its with natural soothing oatmeal skin relieve and on the back it says it has mineral oil, avena sativa oat kernal flour, laureth-4, disteardimonium hectorite, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and silica. 

I tried it out and the bath oil was very slippery, I guess it should be good for him. 
And I'll switch his food back to the chicken one to see if there is any improvement on his fur lose. 

He's not shelding that much quils. Only maybe a few quils a week. (2-4) max. It's his rapid fur shedding I'm worried about. 

I also feed him freezed dried meal worms as a side snack. 

I haven't been feeding him fruits or veggie since he showed no interests in them ): .


And thank you to all of you who helped. I will keep examining him for signs of mites, though I don't think he does have mites. 
He doesn't scratch often when I play with him. 
Infact, he doesn't scratch at all when I play with him, only sometimes at night (If I hear it) since his wheel is silent and his activities at night are also silent.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

Did you get the Aveeno body wash? I think the baby wash formula is better. I got the body wash first and kept wondering why I couldn't get it to lather easily and it didn't seem to work very well. But on the other hand, now I have a bottle of nice body wash for myself! :lol:


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