quills when?

[Toothpick]

I have a hedgehog that had babies and she is loosing her qills. I think she is around 6 months. They are all over her cage, and they are not the babies. Is she suppose to?
~ Toothpick ~

[dzmeadows]

Occasionally a hedgehog of around that age will go through a partial quilling, but it shouldn\'t be a mass episode. How old are the babies? If they are old enough, she really needs to go in for a vet visit to check for mites or any nutritional deficiencies.
Becca

[Toothpick]

We gave her another bath and she seems to be doing better. For a while she lost over 30 quills in two days. I haven\'t seen as much in her cage either. Could it just be from her having the babies?
~ Toothpick ~

[dzmeadows]

I haven\'t witnessed quill loss in relation to birthing babies except in the situation where A.) the mother is stressed by an extremely difficult delivery or B.) the mother is dealing with nutritional deficiencies from providing for her babies.
I would watch her super closely, if it continues I would take her to the vet for a check up.
Becca

[HamorHollow]

If the quill loss is in a concentrated patch, you need to take your hedgehog to the vet and have a mite scraping done now. 30 quills is an abnormally large amount of quills.

I\'ve had mothers get mites after hard deliveries or because they were straining to take care of their babies and it caused their immune systems to be low.

Seriously, if you care about your hedgehog and want her and the babies to survive, you need to get her treated.

Please see the mites articles in our Articles section. There are pictures and cause/ treatment is explained.

Kelly