miniminotaur
Member
I adopted a hedgehog 3 days ago from a girl who took really bad care of him. I guess you could say I rescued him from her cat, who would attack him. This girl never took him out to play and didnt give him a wheel and overfed him, so hes definitely overweight (he can't roll into a ball properly). He's about 3, 3 1/2 years old, and his former owner bought him from a breeder. She had him in aspen or sometimes pine bedding (which i know is horrible for them) so i switched him to fleece liners and made a few snuggle pouches out of the leftover fleece. i took the remainder of the cat food she had for him, its a chicken and rice normal purina blend. not the best or the worst from what i understand but im open to other suggestions. i feed him from small ceramic dishes, which he cant spill but does push around sometimes. hes been eating normally and pooping normally.
Im not sure if it will work but i attached a picture of him in his snuggle sack and in his hidey ball. His name is Minotaur
He has a few problems though. first of all, he tries to bite whenever my hands are near his cage. this makes changing his food and water a scary process. My thinking is that hes used to the cat pawing through the top and so he feels he has to defend himself? anyway, its upsetting because i try to take him out to exercise and he tries to bite me. Ive been using a fleece bit to pick him up even though i shouldnt because i hate the biting but i know he loves to run around. Hes definitely an adventurer type and doesnt like to be held for more than a few seconds before he tries to roll away onto the floor. i should mention that hes even figured out how to jump off of high surfaces in his quest to explore, if hes up off the ground he goes to the edge of whatever hes on and rolls off to land quills first.
this leads to my second problem. he's been itching non-stop but i cant check him for mites or dry skin because i cant hold him without him biting me or running. i can also see that his claws are too long and need to be clipped but i have no idea how to tackle that without upsetting him way too much. he itches the same areas pretty repeatedly but theyre all over his body and he itches constantly unless hes sleeping or running around the cage. my friend (a fellow exotic pet owner and user of this site) has just referred me to an exotic pet vet 25 minutes from my house, so i can make an appointment if thats the only logical route. I have, very alarmingly, found at least 3 or 4 quills on the bottom of the cage daily since switching to a liner, but no dry skin flakes that i can see. please help!
so basically i need help getting my hedgie to want to come out to play (even if he will never want to snuggle) without biting me, and i need to know if i should take him to a vet or not. also, he never learned to use a wheel but i got one for him just in case because i know he likes to run. any advice on teaching him to use it? its a silent spinner, NO HOLES of any kind, but maybe a little high off the ground for him to get up into. Sorry for the novel, any and all advice is appreciated!
Im not sure if it will work but i attached a picture of him in his snuggle sack and in his hidey ball. His name is Minotaur
He has a few problems though. first of all, he tries to bite whenever my hands are near his cage. this makes changing his food and water a scary process. My thinking is that hes used to the cat pawing through the top and so he feels he has to defend himself? anyway, its upsetting because i try to take him out to exercise and he tries to bite me. Ive been using a fleece bit to pick him up even though i shouldnt because i hate the biting but i know he loves to run around. Hes definitely an adventurer type and doesnt like to be held for more than a few seconds before he tries to roll away onto the floor. i should mention that hes even figured out how to jump off of high surfaces in his quest to explore, if hes up off the ground he goes to the edge of whatever hes on and rolls off to land quills first.
this leads to my second problem. he's been itching non-stop but i cant check him for mites or dry skin because i cant hold him without him biting me or running. i can also see that his claws are too long and need to be clipped but i have no idea how to tackle that without upsetting him way too much. he itches the same areas pretty repeatedly but theyre all over his body and he itches constantly unless hes sleeping or running around the cage. my friend (a fellow exotic pet owner and user of this site) has just referred me to an exotic pet vet 25 minutes from my house, so i can make an appointment if thats the only logical route. I have, very alarmingly, found at least 3 or 4 quills on the bottom of the cage daily since switching to a liner, but no dry skin flakes that i can see. please help!
so basically i need help getting my hedgie to want to come out to play (even if he will never want to snuggle) without biting me, and i need to know if i should take him to a vet or not. also, he never learned to use a wheel but i got one for him just in case because i know he likes to run. any advice on teaching him to use it? its a silent spinner, NO HOLES of any kind, but maybe a little high off the ground for him to get up into. Sorry for the novel, any and all advice is appreciated!