In less than two weeks Chai the African pygmy hedgehog will be moving in with us at the tender age of nine weeks old. Chai will be our first hedgehog, and unlike my 'starter guinea pigs' as a teen I'm hoping she won't be subject to too many newbie-owner mistakes... though I am worried about clipping her teeny tiny needle-nails.
Even at this early stage in our relationship, I feel like I've pulled the short straw. Her only job is to eat grown up food while here we've been learning about vivarium heating systems and building flatpack furniture
Organising the decorations, buying the furniture and laying down the carpet... I mean substrate.
Working hard to not fall in love with the crickets, roaches and locust who have arrived ahead of Chai to be gut loaded then frozen as our 'emergency' batch (their cute little munching noises!!!)
We're very excited and trying to pack as much prep work as we can into this week as we can (I'm nearing the end of my post-operative recovery time and it'll be harder to accept deliveries when I'm at work!) This week I've been trying to work out how to keep insects alive - I'm so glad that reptile owners have had to deal with this before I have!
Hope you all don't mind if I use this thread to keep you all up to date on me and Chai as we learn from each other. She has the misfortune of being my first hedgehog but hopefully the fortune of my enthusiasm.
Even at this early stage in our relationship, I feel like I've pulled the short straw. Her only job is to eat grown up food while here we've been learning about vivarium heating systems and building flatpack furniture
Organising the decorations, buying the furniture and laying down the carpet... I mean substrate.
Working hard to not fall in love with the crickets, roaches and locust who have arrived ahead of Chai to be gut loaded then frozen as our 'emergency' batch (their cute little munching noises!!!)
We're very excited and trying to pack as much prep work as we can into this week as we can (I'm nearing the end of my post-operative recovery time and it'll be harder to accept deliveries when I'm at work!) This week I've been trying to work out how to keep insects alive - I'm so glad that reptile owners have had to deal with this before I have!
Hope you all don't mind if I use this thread to keep you all up to date on me and Chai as we learn from each other. She has the misfortune of being my first hedgehog but hopefully the fortune of my enthusiasm.