[Fireflycross]

Hi all,
We recently got our 1st hedgehog before Christmas. Of course the people at the pet store didn't know how old he is, they guessed about 6 months. However, yesterday he started to lose quills, which I've discovered is called quilling. Is it normal for them to quill past 6 months? The age of our little guy could be inaccurate for all we know. We our just worried that he may be stressed (we switched his bedding from pine shavings to a liner), but there are no other indications of stress (green stools, etc).

Thanks.
Ashley
~Mommy to Hobbes~

 

[Nancy]

He is probably quilling but there is always the possibility of mites. Does he scratch?
Some hedgehogs go through a quilling at a year old. If this is the case, it would be large adult quills he is loosing.

One way to tell if this is a baby quilling is to save some of the quills he looses and compare them to what is growing in. If they are small, finer quills, then he is between 8 and 12 weeks old.

 

[Fireflycross]

Nancy,
I don't think he has mites, he hardly ever scratches. And we haven't changed the small bag of shavings that we had been using. The quills he is losing are 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. He weighs about 330 grams. Within the 1st week he got sick and was sneezing a yellow mucus. So we took him to a vet (not specialized in exotic animals unfortunately) and they gave us an antibiotic. Since then he has been very healthy.

Sincerely,
Ashley
~Mommy to Hobbes~