Dry Skin

[VeggieHedgie]

Hello Friends,
This is my first time on the forum so please be forgiving, I read through many of these discussions during the three months prior to receiving my hedgie, so I hope that I am not repeating too much. My hedgie, Turnip, is about 3 months old and was quilling when I got him. He has been done quilling for a few weeks now, but his skin seems extremely dry and flaky. I squirt flaxseed oil in his food twice a week which seems to help but only a little. I also have squirted the oil in a bath for him and then added some of the oil over his skin. This really helps but only lasts about a day before the flakiness comes back. I haven't noticed anything resembling mites when I checked and I made sure that the 3 cat food mix I give him is sufficient. He is very active in the evening and runs in his wheel every night. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it too much, but I am just concerned because it wasn't even this flaky when he was quilling. In addition, his ears don't seem even the least bit tattered, so I am kind of baffled by this.
Any feedback would be much appreciated!!
If a picture would help, just let me know!!
Thank you!!

[hanhan27]

Welcome to HHC! Or should I say, hello to a new poster, hehe.

A hedgehog with dry skin is pretty common. It's not necessarily mites. 4 common symptoms of mites are dry skin, loss of quills, tattered ears, and scratching. Mites are very, very small and can't really be seen with the naked eye. You could coax Turnip into balling up while holding him with a black piece of cloth, and gently bounce him a tiny bit to see if there are white things crawling around on the cloth (a magnifying class might helpful for that, lol).

Several people here at HHC use something called Sunshine Factor for their hedgehog's dry skin

http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/SUNSH ... o/AVXSSF1/

and have a lot of luck with it.

If you do think it could be mites... take Turnip in.