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Crabby Hog

4898 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  numothehedgehog, 
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Hi guys, i'm a new mother to a little hoglet. When we first got her, she did no mind being picked up or played with...but she had very dry skin so we took her to the vet (which was a terrible experience). From this point on, she will NOT let you pick her up, she never comes un-prickly and doesn't want to be around anyone. We try to hold her everynight as scheduled, but she wont have it.
Is there anything i can do?

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Zalea
Are you still actually picking her up at playtime? If not, she probably learned that puffing at you gets you to leave her alone. You can try using a piece of cloth that you slept with (a shirt or blanket, etc) to pick her up while she's balled up if you're too worried about doing so with bare hands. She needs to be handled every night in an effort to socialize her--even if she puffs up and acts like she doesn't want to be handled. Don't let her push you away.
If you HAVE been picking her up, keep doing so. Try to spend half an hour or so a night handling her and talking to her. You can get frontal carriers (bonding bags) from people who sell them specially for hedgies, so you can just wear it around and leave her in the front so she can sleep and get used to you at the same time. You might consider one of those. The main thing is to keep picking her up and interacting, though.
She's a beautiful little girl, by the way. :)
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Zalea
A bark? I've never heard a hedgehog bark...that's interesting. Do you mean like an actual bark, or more of a hiss/growl? I wonder if anyone else has had experience with that.
My hedgehog won't use a litter pan, but he uses a certain area of the cage all the time (behind the wheel). I put a paper towel or two back there for easier clean-up and he's gotten to where he'll use the paper towel. If you notice your little girl going potty in a certain area, you might try that.

I'm about an hour away from Morgantown, in the Philippi area. I commute to D&E in Elkins--I'm a college student too! I have some friends at WVU. A couple in the band, and a couple slackers that just went there because they were dating people in the band. :lol:
There is a mail group on yahoo for the Hedgehog Welfare Society, and we've recently figured out on there that there are about 8 HWS members who live in the local area (Buckhannon, Fairmont, and other surrounding areas), so we were actually thinking about starting an HWS chapter in the area. If you're interested, you might join up on the mailing group (if you haven't already, that is). I'm just amazed there are so many people in the local area. For awhile, I thought I was one of the only ones. I was pleasantly surprised otherwise!
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