can siblings mate?

[downerel]

My female hedgie gave birth to two healthy hoglets, and now they're 7 weeks old. and they are male and female. the question is can the male mate the female? I'm worried because her stools are big and she kept on eating, I don't separate them, I've just separate them from the mom yesterday because she no longer want to breast feed them and became hostile to the kids and because of that they became what I see - protecting each other and looking for comfort from each other that the mom can't give, always sleeping side by side. the female hoglet shows huge appetite ever since she can eat, she'll eat whenever she can. and what I thought the mom's stool, after separating them I've noticed the big stools happened to be hers -- the female hoglet. how can I tell whether she's pregnant or not other than her stools? and also can they happened to be mating when I wasn't around? because as long as I can recall, I've never heard squeaking-want-to-be-mating sound from the male hoglet. please help.

p.s: pardon my english.

[cardiologineer]

I am not a breeder, nor an expert by any means, but I do know that yes, at 7 weeks it is possible for a brother and sister to mate, so you need to separate them from each other immediately. I'm pretty sure there's no way of knowing for sure if a hedgehog is pregnant until they give birth.

[AngelaH]

Yes. Siblings can mate. Parent and child can mate. It is important to ensure inbreeding doesn't happen. I've read that hedgehogs can mate around 8 weeks old, however at that young it is not healthy for the mother since she is still a baby herself.

[tigereyes319]

They need to be seperated NOW!!!! Yes they can mate they do not know the difference of brother/sister, son/mother father/daughter. It would be very bad at this age to breed.

[moxieberry]

Males shouldn't be kept with females (mother or females siblings, or any females for that matter) after being weaned. They can show interest in breeding as early as 7-8 weeks old. Separate them immediately. As long as you do it now, you should be fine. The sister sounds like she's just a growing baby with a healthy appetite. That doesn't mean it's not a big deal - separate them now or mating will take place, which is very serious and a huge health risk for a female that young, as well as for the inbred offspring, if they were to survive. The male needs to be kept in a separate cage and not given any contact with the females from now on.

[downerel]

Thank you all. I will separate the male one now.