# How to pick him up, without gloves?



## Gibbz (Jan 17, 2011)

Hi all!

Today is the third day I've had Nanuq. I have been handling him everyday for 20-30 mins. Last night I let him roam around his pen for awhile as well. I like to "cuddle" with him, but since he's not that "friendly" with me, I pick him up with gloves and put him into his blanket. I rest him on my chest and he goes to sleep there. But, whenever I peak in at him under the blanket, he starts huffing and his quills go over his eyes. I know he's scared of me and will spike up his quills.. So I'm still using gloves. I want him to get used to my scent, but I'm afraid of him hurting me and me jumping and strartling him. 

I want to pick him up without the gloves, but is it too early? How can I go about picking him up without me getting spiked? Haha. I love the fact that this is a relationship I have to work on, so any advice would be very much appreciated for a first time hedgie owner!
Thanks!!


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

Snarf still won't let me look at him without huffing and he's almost 2. :roll: 

I either pick him up in his bag - since that's exactly where he's going to want him to go as soon as I set him down.

Or, I use the bag or a piece of fleece to pick him up. To try it: drape it over him and put one hand on either side of his body and kinda scoop him up. Be careful as he will likely be squirmy and you may still get poked but it's not an entire handful of pokes.

Pointers I picked up:
- don't use gloves so he gets used to your smell
- talk to him and tell him what you're going to do
- let him give you a good sniff before you put your hands near his back - in other words don't surprise the crap out of him!
- once you set him down, you may want to keep him covered if he's that shy
- I taught Snarf to tolerate petting by holding him baby-style to my chest (on his fleece, on his back - all balled up) and I let him sniff my finger, then I gently touched his butt, then I touched a bit further. Now he let's me pet him waaaaaay more - even if he's up and walking around.


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

You can also put one of your used shirts where he sleeps. That way he will get used to your scent.


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## Nebular (Dec 28, 2010)

I started handling Norman without gloves the instant I brought him home. Picking them up with gloves doesn't let them get used to your scent or the feeling of being picked up with bare hands.

If you haven't already, put an old, worn, unwashed shirt in his cage with him. This gives him something that smells like you even when you're not handling him.

When you go to pick him up, place you hand near his nose so he has a chance to smell you. Like MissC said, you're less likely to scare the crap out of him if you give him some notice. Chances are he'll huff and puff over it for the first week or so. More so if you do it during the day while he's trying to sleep. He'll get over it. If you can, scoop your hands under him, one on each side, then gently lift. He may or may not ball up. If he does it's nothing unusual. If he's going to stay in a ball when you attempt to pick him up, put one hand against one side and gently nudge/roll him into that hand, then pick him up once he's fully in there. It takes a while to get used to the feeling of those little spines in your hand. If he doesn't un-ball in the first 10 seconds or so of being picked up, turn him around so you're face-to-face and gently rock him towards you using just your wrists. I found that this got Norman to pop out almost instantly, though he only seems to want to ball up when he's REALLY sleepy.

The huffing and raising the quills when you go to peek at him isn't that unusual. He was probably having a nice little nap.  Again, this will be more common in the first couple of weeks while he gets used to you and being handled by you. The more you handle him, the more he'll adjust. I found that stroking him even when he raised a fuss like this helped us both. I got used to his little huffing fits, and he learned that I wasn't a predator and actual that way a lot less. (Pretty sure he also learned that no matter how much he does it, I'm not going anywhere :lol

Those quills aren't going to get any softer and they'll always have their little moments of huffing and popping, so it's probably best to get used to being jabbed with quills sooner than later. 

Short of it: gloves off. Pick up. Love.


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

Nebular said:


> Short of it: gloves off. Pick up. Love.


That's so awesome. :mrgreen:


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## wrigley (Nov 21, 2010)

MissC said:



> Nebular said:
> 
> 
> > Short of it: gloves off. Pick up. Love.


I love that advice too! I have one of the huffiest hedgies you'll ever meet. his name is Needles. I've had him for over a year and he's still like that even though I handle him daily. Some of them never get any better and you don't want to wait for him to get better only to find out he's not going to.

I got him when he was 6 weeks old from a breeder that doesn't socialize his babies but I thought since he was so young he'd be easy to socialize. Not true in his case. Maybe he came from huffy parents or its simply just his personality but he's never gotten any better for me. I just pick him up every evening by putting my hands underneath him and scooping him up. No gloves, no t-shirt (he always pushed that to the corner of his cage and went to the other corner to hide). Yes, his quills are poky and he pops like popcorn but you get used to it. He rarely unballs even when he's been sitting on my lap for 1/2 hour. He just lays there and huffs with every slightest movement I make. He's never aggressive and has never tried to bite me but I know he doesn't enjoy my attention.

I know a lot of grumpy people that are grumps on the outside and secretly enjoy a little love even though they won't show it. My father-in-law was like that! Everyone always joked that I was the only person he could tolerate because I didn't let him be his old grumpy self. No one (including my kids) liked him and was scared of him because of his barking but I loved him and he knew it. He recently passed away and I miss that old fart more than anything and I'm so glad we had that relationship. I sat at his bedside when he was dying and he held my hand like he didn't want to let go. Don't give up on your hedgie. They all need love even if they don't think they do. Good luck!


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

Even after more than a year, I always use fleece to pick up my hedgies from their cage, it makes me feel safer and I find it more comfortable. Each hedgie has a specific blanket that I use to pick them up and it's thick enough and long enough that I can fold it in two and easily pick up a hedgie without feeling the quills.


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## Gibbz (Jan 17, 2011)

Ok, well I've stopped using the gloves and now I'm just using "his" thin, fleece blanket. Today he let me pet his quills until he fell asleep! I continued petting him even though he was fast asleep haha. He actually didn't burrow underneath the blanket, instead he totally unraveled himself and fell asleep on his side, completely trusting! I'm getting used to his huffing and popping when I go to pick him up, I just do it anyways. At night he's too hyper to cuddle, he runs on his wheel all night long! Is anyone else's hedgie too spun at night to hold? Hahaha.  

Thanks for the advice & tips everyone.


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## Nebular (Dec 28, 2010)

Glad to hear things are moving along nicely! 

Norman sometimes gets really squirmy in the evenings. Now I give him free run of the couch so if he's laying in my lap and gets the sudden urge to explore, he'll slide out of my shirt, wander around the couch for a minute or two, then climb back up and snuggle in for another power nap. I think he just gets these sudden bursts of energy. Letting him wander seems to have solved stopped most of his squirming. He occasionally gets those sudden hyper-active bursts at night and runs like his butt is on fire for what seems like hours. Guess they may have just a bit of extra energy from sleeping all day.


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## Gibbz (Jan 17, 2011)

Haha, thanks.
Yes, I'm sure because they're nocturnal. He runs away, and we have a lot of nooks and crannies for him to get in and hide. I'm planning on getting a pen-type-thing for him to be in, that way I don't have to worry about him running away. He's so attatched to his running wheel, aha.


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## R3d foreman (Jan 1, 2011)

i didn't read the whole thread but can offer the following tips - try to pick him up when he's awake as opposed to waking him up ( i know, sometimes there's no alternative ) and feed him meal worms from your hand...i can get peter to crawl into my hands sometimes now...sometimes not :lol:


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

R3d foreman said:


> i didn't read the whole thread but can offer the following tips - try to pick him up when he's awake as opposed to waking him up ( i know, sometimes there's no alternative ) and feed him meal worms from your hand...i can get peter to crawl into my hands sometimes now...sometimes not :lol:


Hand feeding isn't recommended because it can lead to them associating your fingers/hands with food and lead to biting, which can be hard to break.


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## R3d foreman (Jan 1, 2011)

well i'm no breeder, so that sould be considered when my advice, which only comes from my personal experience with my hedgehog, is read. peter has never bitten me; i'm sure it can lead to biting but doesn't mean it will

so OP, i revise my advice to "feed your hedgehog a few mealworms (maybe 3-5) when you handle him, but do not overfeed him if you handle him multiple times. put the mealworms in his food dish when it's empty or another approved container to avoid forming a biting habit. this will show him that you are friendly "


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

R3d has a good point with the container...I used to use tweezers so it wouldn't be my hands Snarf eventually chomps but he lunges ninja-style at the tweezers or anything I've used (plastic fork) that he is inevitably going to take out an eye or lose a tooth. :roll: So now I use those little pizza dip containers - he totally gets what the little white container measn!!!


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## R3d foreman (Jan 1, 2011)

yeah we use a dish from fridays that they bring you ranch dressing in...shhh, don't tattle!


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## Gibbz (Jan 17, 2011)

We've definitely made some progress. I can pet him now and I hold him when I bathe him. He's comfortable with me, he knows my voice and relaxes when he hears it. He hates anything I give him though! Including mealworms :roll: All is well.


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