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Just Another Hedgehog (and other goodies) Blog!

30753 Views 277 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  SunnyLeslie
Since I have things scattered all over the place, as is typical with me, I thought I'd just start fresh with a properly titled thread. (If you mods want to lock the others feel free!) So here goes.

First off, a thread introducing my pets that I had when I joined the forum: Pictures of My Pets.

After that, I added some new members, and that happens over here: New Family Members.

Here's a running total of everything I have right this second:
1 African Pygmy Hedgehog, male, Finnick, 1.5 years old
1 Australian Cattle Dog, male, Oz, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Senegal parrot, female, Pepper, 3 yo.
1 Blue Tongued Skink, female, Rocket, Estimated 5 yo.
1 Ball python, unconfirmed male, Illidan, 7 and a half yo.
1 Mexican black kingsnake, male, Sherlock, 3 yo.
1 Green tree python, male, Akihiko, Estimated 2-3 yo.
1 Veil tail betta, male, Keitan, 5 months old.
2 Tiger salamanders, one wild, one bought, unknown sex, Squee and Shaw, Estimated ages 2yo and 1 yo.
3 Crested Geckos, two female, one male, Nanamo, Mordin, and Grunt, all 1 yo.
3 Dwarf blue day geckos, two male, one female, Skaro, Lil Dude, and Kaylee, estimated ages for Skaro and Kaylee 4 yo. Lil Dude is 6 months old.
7 Dendrobates auratus "El Cope" poison dart frogs, two female, three male, two juveniles. All named after Adventure Time characters, Adults estimated 2 yo. Juveniles are 3 months old.
1 Saltwater fish tank. Contents: corals, pistol shrimp, hermit crabs, snails. All brand new.

Pets with estimated ages were either adopted later in their lives, rescued, or wild caught/farmed and imported. I've had a vet as well as an importer help me get as close as possible to everyone's actual ages.

I'll be embedding any future pictures of my family here, so they're all together in one spot. Not including Finnick of course, who can have his own threads, but will likely be duplicated here just for archival's sake. I also post videos from time to time and mean to do a lot more of that. You can see my YouTube account here: 5ubv3rsion. And I'd like to point out a specific video that I just added of Finnick chasing crickets around the bathtub. I took this a few weeks ago and forgot I had it, so here it is now: Pet Hedgehog vs Crickets.

And also, here's the fan favorite Finn Dust Bathing in His Mealworms.

Thanks for reading, and I'll update again soon! Maybe with a video of the ball python having a swim, and some more photos...
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And just a quick update with a video schedule. This is tentative, because nobody ever does what I want on the day I want them to do it, but upcoming videos should look something like this:

Episode 1 - Legs - Sunday, June 5 - Posted
Episode 2 - Akihiko - Wednesday, June 8 - Posted
Episode 3 - Cresties - Sunday, June 12
Episode 4 - Salamanders - Wednesday, June 15
Episode 5 - Illidan - Sunday, June 19
Episode 6 - Finnick - Wednesday, June 22
Episode 7 - Sherlock - Sunday, June 26
Episode 8 - Pepper - Wednesday, June 29
Episode 9 - Keitan - Sunday, July 3
Episode 10 - Kerrigan - Wednesday, July 6
Episode 11 - Saltwater - Sunday, July 10
Episode 12 - Rocket - Wednesday, July 13
Episode 13 - L williamsi - Sunday, July 17
Episode 14 - Oz - Wednesday, July 20

So make sure you catch Finnick on June 22nd! I'm sure there will be lots of hedgie bum and not much looking at the camera or behaving himself. I'm also hoping Rocket's new door will be installed by July. Right now it's sliding cardboard, so she can't even see out :(.
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Rocket gets time in "solitary confinement" for repeated escape attempts. Security measures need beefed up and she has to meet with the warden before being aloud back into general population.
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She's really sad about it too. I keep hearing her flailing against the cardboard trying to knock it over. She went outside for an hour yesterday but I guess that wasn't good enough :lol:.
Cresties today on YouTube! I was fiddling with the video quality and I don't like how this one turned out, so it may get redone and re-uploaded in a week or so.

In hedgehog news, Finnick managed to pop the lid off his dirt bath box and flung sand EVERYWHERE! I found some on top of the frog tank across the room, and in the windowsill way above him. So he definitely had a good time last night :lol:. I'm glad he's still enjoying that box so much.

And in Akihiko news, he shed and pooped! The shed is in two pieces because it got stuck on his plant, but it's all off and he looks great. I'll try feeding him a frozen thawed mouse tomorrow. Hopefully he's hungry now.
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The salamander video is live a little bit early because I'm going to go play Skyrim all night!

Akihiko ate, but he did it while I wasn't watching and it was dark. I'm glad he took a frozen thawed mouse, but I didn't catch him eat it. I actually tucked it in his coils and he constricted and sat with it wrapped up for 45 minutes, so I left him at it and went to bed. He didn't ever strike it but it was gone in the morning. Whatever works, I guess!
It's Illidan today! (Tomorrow? I'm an hour early local time)

I've settled on a piece of 1/8" thick plexiglass and a long hinge for the skink cage. Unfortunately a 48" long piece is triple the price of a 36" piece, so I'm going to buy the 36er and bring the front walls in a foot to frame the plexiglass. That should give it enough support on all four edges to prevent it from buckling if it gets dogslammed. Oz has warped the cardboard now by pressing his head in the top and folding it over. He's definitely persistent, I'll give him that. He's doing better with sudden skink movements but he likes to periodically bend the cardboard and look inside. Dogs :roll:.

Finnick's video is almost done, I just need to take a shot of his cage. And then it's ready to go, so it will be up on Wednesday!
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Illidan is such a good boy. I love him! And the cresties are adorable too. :D

Oz is such a dork. :lol: Hopefully he doesn't assist Rocket with another escape before you get the new door up!

I can't wait to see Finn's video! I posted an update recently on my thread, but may post again today or tomorrow. I have a ton of pictures & videos of the hermit crabs after cleaning & rearranging their tank today, and I want to get a new picture of Charis's tank too, since I just rearranged hers a bit after the cleaning.
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He's my little sweetheart. As you can see the cresties haven't been moved yet. I still haven't decided who is going where. Too many choices!

Oz is so rotten. I actually put him in the bathroom for Finn's video because I didn't want a dogface on my lap the whole time :lol:.

Finnick refused to sit still while I was filming. He does this goofy waddle from one of my shoulders to the other. It's pretty darn cute.

I'm so excited to see pictures of the crabbies and Charis's tank! I'm sad the little naked crab didn't make it. It was super cute.
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It's Finnick day!

He absolutely refuses to hold still when he's out of his snuggle sack :lol:. I'm hoping to do a more detailed video on hedgehog care, maybe in segments, in the near future, so it'll be a bit more all-inclusive instead of just the basic stuff.

I also have a funny outtake to post a little later. During our first filming session, Pepper decided to feed me. And then I wouldn't take it so she plays with it. It was really gross! I had to re-shoot all of it because there was puke all over her beak and feet.

I'm done my prep bloodwork and physical and am now confirmed for surgery Friday morning, so I've pre-filmed the next two videos. They'll be up on time but I may not be around consistently to discuss them or answer any questions. I'm assuming I'll be able to use my phone while I'm in bed though, so I won't be completely gone.

Here's hoping the doctor finds something to fix while he's exploring around :???:.
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And then there's this dummy:



I don't know what to do with him. He is the worst predator ever. I think he was reciting Shakespeare to it.
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He loves him, and hugs him, and names him George!
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He's going to be very skinny, but he'll have a lot of Georges!
:lol: Silly Finn! Bindi will usually do the "Nope, not staying here, must move" thing if I don't let her go straight to my shoulder or chin and calm down for a few minutes first. I love when he froze on your shoulder and seemed to be posing, heh. He was so determined to hide though! Finn's worm reminded me I have thawed out earthworms in the fridge to sort out of the dirt & arrange for re-freezing...not looking forward to that! :?

Silly Aki. At least he gets halfway there? That's a pretty great picture though. :lol: He just wants a stuffed animal to cuddle!
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Blech. I have a 2 gallon tub of earthworms in the fridge right now full of peat moss mixed with top soil. I toss some rotting fruit on the top once a week, but I'm not sure if they're breeding. I don't want to go digging and accidentally hurt any babies. The internet says to just look for castings but I don't see any.

He is quite cute in his ridiculousness, I must admit :lol:. I was actually filming him trying to catch him eating when he did that, so I stopped shooting and took a picture. He stared at it for a good 8 minutes without moving. He ate it once I gave up and left. I think I should have just waited until Aki's lullaby was over. "Rock-a-bye mousey in the tree top~" "Okay song's over! *nom*"

I'm in for surgery at 11:00am today, so in 4 hours from when this gets posted. I'm going to be pretty loopy the rest of the day but I'll check in at some point on the weekend. I should be back on my feet by Monday, hopefully.
Haha, so I posted and forgot to mention what I found at 11:00pm last night when I got up to eat. I wasn't allowed to eat after midnight, so I got up to put everyone to bed and feed Finnick and myself. I went into the pet room and there's this teeny adorable face peeking out at me from behind the fruit flies in front of the frog tank. I have no idea how she managed it, but the baby williamsi who isn't a baby anymore, still nameless because I'm hoping to trade her to bring in some new genetics, was loose. I chased her all over the upper floor of the house. They are SO fast! I managed to snag her before she hid anywhere and she's back in the cage now, but I get to go looking for holes. The fun never stops here! I saw Kaylee was still inside the cage but I haven't seen Skaro yet. He's my little escape artist so I'm worried he's out, but maybe his daughter just inherited his skill and found the hole before he did. So I'm off to patch a hole and go gecko hunting!
Surely Oz had something to do with helping her escape.
I wouldn't be surprised. He's pretty sneaky himself. I can see him talking to her in the middle of the night, "okay I'll just lift this up and then you run for it! The boss won't know what happened and you'll be free!" He's insisting he's innocent until proven guilty in the court of Pepper, but of course Pepper already thinks he's guilty. She may be biased.

The containment field has been patched and all three geckos are still inside. The tape along the entire back edge was peeling up.
Glad you found the little one before she got lost or hurt! And I totally forgot, I was going to add well wishes for the surgery to my last comment. Hope everything goes well!
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Thanks Kelsey!

I'm up and about enough to upload Sherlock today, so that's a good sign. Still in a bit of pain and feeling icky, and still covered in pink. I'm hoping to have a shower right after this. I can hardly wait! The doctor did find a few things and removed them, so I should be fixed once I'm healed up! I've been dealing with this for 8 years and all the other doctors refused to do exploratory surgery for some reason, but this one didn't and it seems to have worked. Yay! As I was passing out from the anesthesia he was telling be about the surgery. He said "Okay so this is a really simple procedure. We just cut you open from your belly button to your collar bone, and then we add some little side cuts so we can spread it all open..." The last thing I remember is laughing and saying "No, I changed my mind!" :lol:. Really funny doctor. I quite like him. The actual incisions are about a centimeter a piece, so just tiny.

When I got home and was still drugged up, Oz came over and had a great big stomp on one of my incisions for me, so that was nice of him. He's worried but he's the least graceful dog ever so he's been tied up or crated a lot the past two days. I feel bad about it but I really don't want to be stepped on again :???:. Everybody else is doing well. Pepper's been yelling at me from across the house and I've been responding :lol:.

And here's Mister Snerklock:
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Glad to hear the surgery went well & you're doing well! Poor Oz...he really needs to work on that clumsiness. :lol: I bet that hurt a ton though - my sister had a similar incident after one of her c-sections for babies where one of the older kids accidentally stomped down on her c-section incision. She just about passed out!

The Sherlock video is still set to private, can't watch it yet!
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