Just read through some other stories on biting and am looking for a little reassurance and advice. Lychee has got a lot more use to us over the last month and is now quite happy to play on us etc. Unfortunately he has bitten on a couple of occasions. It’s not every time he comes across skin and isn’t usually a long or hard bite just a nip like he’s testing us to see if we’re food except once when he was running for the crook of my arm and I went to pick him out, although I think he might have had a finger poked right in his face that time. This is what I want reassurance on, that, on the scale of things this is normallish. I’m not that affected as I tend to keep away from his pointy end due to the fact that if we introduce new foods his first reaction is to attack it to see if a)it’s food and b)he likes it, but my girlfriend is getting quite upset but knows not to take it personally. We’re going to try the hand sanitizer thing next time (hopefully he won’t like the taste of that).
I did notice that he does bite and carry around the cat balls with bells in I got him which I thought at the time was funny as he didn’t like the sound of them. Could this be encouraging him to bite? Should I take them off him?
I\'d leave his little toys with him.
He sounds like a good little hedgie.
As for chomping on you, just be consistent with how you smell. We started washing our hands with the same soap (I chose the Softsoap brand aloe vera hand soap) every time before picking our hedgie up and she stopped chomping. It works well for guests too... we just have them wash up with the stuff and she doesn\'t chomp on them either. If they fail to wash up, she lick, lick, chomps.
--> Satin Mirranda Hufflepuff <--
--> Tex Buckaroo Hufflepuff <--
My Spikey went through a big time oral phase where he seemed to be nipping and biting at everything--from his toy mouse, to biting his tp tubes and hurling them in the air, to biting my husband\'s sock (which I predicted because I just sensed that Spikey was eyeballing it with too much interest), nipping at his carefresh. This has calmed down a lot; I think the only reason I did not get nipped is I was not handling him much and when I did I kept my hands away from his mouth.
I am using an unscented soap now--from the health food store. It has absolutely no scent whereas the soap I was using before had a slight scent that I thought may be causing the problems. I consistently use the soap and I had my brother in law use it before handling him.
I dont know what to say, though, except \"I feel your pain\" LOL. Tonight, after giving Spikey his medication, he started sniffing around and then started to bite on his blanket--a lot. I knew annointing was about to happen so I was blowing in his face and distracting him because I did not want the medication coming up in the spit. I think Spikey was smelling my husband, who had just gotten out of the shower and had cologne on and was sitting right near us. Maybe that confused him. But it is worrysome when I see Spikey \"attacking\" (via his mouth) something because I think \"what if that was my hand\".
Personally, I have really worked hard to keep my worrying at bay. These hedgies are little creatures and I think they have their own moods, cycles, and issues and I think their behaviors reflect this. I dont think they are predictable per say (I could be totally wrong on this). Like I wrote in the other post about the noises, when I was up at 2:15am I heard spikey making some noise that I have never heard before. I have no idea what that is about but I am just trying to go with the flow. The more relaxed I am, the better things go.
Sorry for the ramble. Just wanted you to know that there is another person muddling through these issues. And just when I think we are doing ok, something happens like extra huffiness or strange noises and then I think \"hmmm\" and \"I am incompetent\".
Andrea
Young hedgehogs use their mouths to explore and haven\'t quite grasped the difference between inanimate objects and FLESH. Eventually Lychee will calm down and stop greeting ever new smell with his teeth. Most hedgies aren\'t biters in the same sense a dog or parrot might be. Their main defense is those quills.
I am sure you are both doing a great job with your new hedgies.
~Sara
There's no love like HEDGEHOG LOVE!
Having been bitten hard enough to lift the hedgie off the ground, still attached to my arm, I can say it\'s tolerable. I feel like fearing a bite will handicap me from socializing her as much as she needs. So now that I know how hard it can get I\'m comfortable with that level of pain and proceed forward. On a happy note, she\'s biting a lot less since i gave up being afraid of it. It sometimes feel like that \"dogs can smell fear\" thing. Now that I don\'t care she doesn\'t. That and a fellow hedgie owner taught me about blowing in thier face medium hard when they bite you. Don\'t know if it helps.
mschwindt wrote:
She bit you hard enough she was still holding on to your arm? She may have done it out of fear when you moved your arm, but that is a bit over the usual oral exploration phase.Having been bitten hard enough to lift the hedgie off the ground, still attached to my arm, I can say it\'s tolerable. I feel like fearing a bite will handicap me from socializing her as much as she needs. So now that I know how hard it can get I\'m comfortable with that level of pain and proceed forward. On a happy note, she\'s biting a lot less since i gave up being afraid of it. It sometimes feel like that \"dogs can smell fear\" thing. Now that I don\'t care she doesn\'t. That and a fellow hedgie owner taught me about blowing in thier face medium hard when they bite you. Don\'t know if it helps.
I think you are doing the right thing. Don\'t show fear they CAN tell when you are afraid. And keep doing what ever you were doing at the time of the bite. If you were petting the hedge don\'t stop. (Within reason of course). This lets the hedgehog know, biting is not a way of getting what she wants. And those bites do hurt! Ouch.
~Sara
There's no love like HEDGEHOG LOVE!
Is it wrong that I am able to scoop him up via his middle but that I keep my hands/arms away from his mouth and I dont let his mouth come near my hand? I AM handling him and we do a lot of bonding via him exploring my lap or him burrowing in a blankie that I have on my lap and he does burrow/dive under my forearm, but I am kindof purposely keeping my skin away from his mouth. I am trying to not show fear and I think we are making slow and steady progress. But I dont hold him flat on my palm.
andrea
When I first got my hedgie she loved to bite things, including me! I do not think that she realized that biting flesh=bad. She does not bite either me or my boyfriend anymore because whenever she bit us we would blow a small puff of air on her. It was enough to make her let go, and it trained her not to bite anymore. I can now anticipate when she is possibly going to bite because she always licks first. Also if anyone new holds her she will possibly bite them because they smell new to her and she wants to know if they taste good.
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