[mhudson]

Hi,

My hedgehog (10 weeks old, female) attempted to hibernate on Saturday night, so three days ago, as a result of the weather suddenly getting cold! I warmed up the room and put a heating pad under her bin and she warmed up and started moving more within 15 minutes. In less than 2 hours she was eagerly eating her food and wanting more, and she woke me up at 5 am (5 hours after finding her) running across the room (she had managed to escape her temporary warm-up cage). She is now back in her big cage, with a heating pad on low under half of the bed part of her cage. She is pooping regularly, she is eating regularly...there may be a slight decrease in her wheel activity. Sometimes she seems okay to be handled, but sometimes she starts jumping...something she never did before.

I assume it is a process to recover from her hibernation attempt...but is there any "expected behaviour" following this traumatic experience? The jumping she does makes me a little nervous but I just want to make sure that that makes sense after what she's been through...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

- Marin

 

[mhudson]

Yeah, I also thought it might have something to do with the quilling...this just isn't something I expected to happen so having it happen right around her quilling period makes it difficult to tell what's what!

Thanks for your help!

 

[mhudson]

Hi again, it's a week after the incident and she's gotten mostly back to normal. Today, however, I came home from work and she started running around like mad and jumping frantically, and has done that for two hours whenever I come near her. I haven't taken a shower but have taken off my work shirt, washed my hands, etc. I am hoping this is just some weird smell on me, not some effect from the traumatic experience we both went through last weekend when she tried to hibernate...

 

[mhudson]

Okay, good to know. She is running on her wheel as we speak, is eating fine, poop seems normal...she's just acting really strange. Running around frantically and jumping around (especially when I put my hand out for her to smell, or to pick her up)...even when I feed her kibble with my fingers, she grabs it and backs away.

Does this happen when they quill? I didn't think that the change would be so sudden...but she's 11 weeks now so it's about the right time...