Andrea
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hello! I am new here - 2008/03/12 20:03
Hi everybody! I am new to this forum. I adopted my hedgehog, Spikey, on 2-20-08 from Stasi, who has been an absolute SAINT with regards to answering my questions via phone and email, reassuring me about Spikey, allowing me to come up twice to visit and ask questions before I adopted and even inviting me and Spikey to her hedgehog party this weekend. She even probably saved Spikey's life (more on that in a second) when we had an emergency. I love Spikey so much--he is really cute and funny and even though I have some worries, I want to work through the issues (if they are even issues) because I consider Spikey part of the family. Spikey was born on New Year's day (how cool is that?)
The first week we had him home, he spent most of his time snuggled under my tee-shirt (which I put in there at the suggestion of the Primer book I bought from Stasi) in his new home, even though he had a hedgie bag. When I would check on him via peeking under the shirt, he would huff and pop and bury himself in the carefresh under the shirt. But I stayed up late at night and did observe him running all around his cage, so I knew the sleeping was normal. He was eating and pooping fine; now he seems to be eating much more and is only pooping in one area in his cage (which I scoop out every morning) so he has trained himself at this point.
I eventually removed the tee shirt and now Spikey is sleeping in his hedgie bag. He likes to scratch inside the back corners of the bag. Is this normal?
About two weeks after having him home, I noticed one Wednesday evening that Spikey was standing by his water bottle, giving me what I now think is the hedgie stare of death. At the time, I did not know exactly what was wrong or what that look meant. But then the next evening, Thursday, he was back by his water bottle but this time he was thrashing around, biting it, pulling on it. I tested it and realized that at some point it must have gotten jammed (I had seen him drink early on and had been testing it). So I started to squeeze the bottle, forcing water to come out and poor Spikey guzzled about an inch (or maybe even more) of water. I called Stasi in an emergency call (by then it was quite late) and she advised me to get another dish for his food and to put water in his food dish. I now have a separate food dish and water dish and have seen Spikey drink. Poor Spikey was probably dehydrated!
What I have noticed since then is that Spikey seems to be going through some kind of oral phase (which I read about on this forum); this may be a coincidence or directly related to the above situation. He was nipping at his hedgie bag, his carefresh, at his toy mouse, at his toilet paper tubes (even doing a shot-put where he would throw the tube with his mouth); he has also nipped and tugged at the towel I spread out when I do out of cage time. He nipped my husband's hand and then last night he nipped at his sock. The nipping does not follow a lick of any kind. It seems to be less intense than those first few days but I dont know what all of this mouth action means. It is making me more hesitant and nervous to pick him up and I usually keep my fingers/hands away from his mouth and will quickly transfer him to my arm or the towel. I know this is not helping him get to know me but I also dont know what is going on with all of these nips. And I know my nervousness about being nipped/bit is probably making him unhappy.
Otherwise, he seems healthy and I would like to think happy--poops are normal, he is eating and drinking. The room is warm--I have a thermostat space heater set. His cage is clean and I have some balls, tubes, a tunnel, and carefresh, which he likes to dig in. He home is upstairs in the office and it is not noisy. We do use the computer and talk to him but at night it is dark and quiet. Every evening I check on him in his hedgie bag and talk to him and put a few kibbles (one at a time) near the entrance and he always comes forward and eats. He is not really huffing or popping when I do this now--he usually just makes a little squeek noise and his forehead quills go down over his face but then they come up again. So I think he knows me a little bit.
When I do out of cage time, sometimes he just sits quietly or tries to snuggle under something. He has done some really funny antics with the tp tube, too. He is not huffing or popping much when out of the cage, unless something startles him (like the phone ringing). Yesterday I could tell he was aiming for my husband's sock, so I did the "blow air in his face" trick that the Primer book suggested. It did not really deter him too much but he did move on maybe sooner than he would have.
The other point to mention is that I have been finding very tiny quills on things--on the towel during out of cage time (like 5-6 each time), in his hedgie bag and a few in the cage. But he does not have bald spots or anything....so I dont know if this is quilling or not.
Any thoughts or suggestions.....I dont know if I am doing things wrong or if these things take time. The nipping/biting worries me. I feel like I have burned Stasi out with all of my initial angst but she has been a total saint and very patient.
Thank you so much for your help and/or ideas.
Andrea
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