'Bonded' With Your Hedgehog?

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Bailey59

Has Hedgehog Disease
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
69
Location
New Jersey
This may be a stupid question, but how do you know when you have bonded with your hedgehog?

As far as I heard, most hedgehogs ball up when you try to hold them. Some may do it till they are 6 months old or more. Finally, when they stop balling up, you have made a bond with them. Easy as that.

Not with my case.

Pompeii has never balled up (only in his sleep). He will always come out and allow me to get him. He lets me hand feed him, pet him, and 'cuddle' with him. Truth be told, I was really expecting for him to be grouchy and rude the first couple of weeks/months. He is quilling and still nothing! I have to say I was kind of hoping for a challenge also, something to push towards. I'm not upset that he is this friendly, just confused. I love him so much already and love his personality. He makes me laugh all the time, but I doubt he and I made a huge bond over this past week. How will I know we are BFF's? How do I get to push with him and form an unbreakable bond?

Just to confirm this, I am not sad that he is this go-lucky. I am mostly confused on what to do next and how to comprehend everything.

Has anyone else had this happen before? What have you done to bond better and closer?

P.S. I don't necessarily mean cuddling (he will never sit still except for when I get him while he was sleeping).
 
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Well, you know when you've bonded with your hedgehog when you start developing hedgie withdrawal symptoms when you're not holding your hedgie. Symptoms include: reading about hedgehogs, looking at pictures of other hedgehogs, scrolling through pics on your phone/facebook/other sources of your own hedgehog, making facebook or board posts about hedgie, discovering that "this" looks like a hedgehog and "that" reminds you of a hedgehog, etc... These symptoms are serious and need to be addressed. You can't just go about your day pretending like it isn't happening.

You know when your hedgehog has bonded with you when hedgie starts treating you differently than how he treats other people. So, take Pompeii for example, how does he act when you pick him up out of his cage? And what happens when someone else tries? How about when you interact and want to look at his belly? And, then, what happens when someone else tries? If you and someone else are around during play/snuggle time, has he developed preferences? For example, If you're holding him and some other person has their hands outstretched, will he walk from you to them? What about the other way around... if he's being held by someone else and you are close by, will he try to get to you?

In terms of how to establish that bond, that's something that comes slowly with time... by being there for him every single day, the one who changes his food and water and cleans his cage, the one who scoops him up for snuggle time and holds him close, the one that he uses as a jungle gym, the one who scrubs his wheel, the one who clips his nails and saves him from the perils of the dreaded footbath... Those are the things that earn trust and comfort.
 
Happy Camper

That was the best reply I have ever heard! It made me smile throughout :clap1: :cute:

I will make sure I do that group thing when my friend sleeps over.

Thank you so much Smhufflepuff!!!
 
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I like to think my hedgie and I are bonded. If anyone is holding him and i put my hand next to theirs he will walk to me.

I used to set him on my coffee table and he would pace back and forth, trying to bridge the gap between the table and the couch I was sitting on a foot away. He desperately wanted to be on the couch I was sitting on. If I placed my hand in front of the table he would hop on and walk across.

I let him know he is special and that he is my little buddy every time I wake him up because I give him a nice little kiss right on his visor/brow.
 
I like to think my hedgie and I are bonded. If anyone is holding him and i put my hand next to theirs he will walk to me.

I used to set him on my coffee table and he would pace back and forth, trying to bridge the gap between the table and the couch I was sitting on a foot away. He desperately wanted to be on the couch I was sitting on. If I placed my hand in front of the table he would hop on and walk across.

I let him know he is special and that he is my little buddy every time I wake him up because I give him a nice little kiss right on his visor/brow.

Awww... feels good when they walk to you, doesn't it?
 
Ok so I'm really new to this site and to small animal partnership so I have a few questions.
First it seems I'm in a lil different situation than most. I have a friend who very recently let me adopt my lil hedgie Hazel. She's about a year old we believe and has had 3 owners. Me being the 3rd. She is extremely skittish. Last owner said she always has been. We can pick her up without worry of bites but she huffs and puffs nonstop and sits in a ball. It's been two days so I know it'll take much longer to make her comfortable with me. As of right now I'm laying in bed with her on my belly in between the covers to get used to my scent and body heat. We recently got her a nice new home which is a glass terrarium with aspen shavings, a heat lamp with ceramic heat emitter a nice lil den wrapped in my shirt, a lil water feature a 12" wheel a small litter box (she's not potty trained yet) and two food dishes. She does not seem food driven at all. So I guess given the situation what would be the best way to approach this lil girl and earn her trust?
 
Every hedgehog is different. For example, the first hedgehog I got had two owners before me, and she wasn't handled much. I've had her almost 3 years now, and she still huffs and balls up every time I get her out of her cage, or go near her cage when she is out. Eventually she will unroll and explore, but it can take up to 10 minutes or so for her to relax, depending on what else is going on at the time (like if the TV is on, if there's something loud outside, etc.).

On the other hand, my other hedgehog never balls up. I have seen her curl into a ball once since I have had her (since last July). She is extremely friendly, and loves new people.

I just wanted to say that to let you know she may always spike up a bit when you first get her out, it doesn't mean she doesn't like you! She may just be the shy type.

As for getting her used to you, cuddling with her is a good start. Try to take her out for a little while each day and set her on your lap while you watch TV, read a book, or whatever. You can also try to give her a treat while she's out, but it may take some searching to find something she likes. My hedgehogs don't like eating while they're outside their cages, but some do.
 
Thank you for the info! I will keep trying with her. We had good progress today. I took her out and sat on the shag rug with her and after a few min she looked around for a few and then crawled up to me and sniffed my pants and tried to see if she could squeeze under me the went under the couch in the shadows. I then picked her up and put her back in her home.
 
Still trying to earn trust by laying with her in bed on my chest under the blanket. But we've had a few accidents and it's starting to be a pattern. What to do? The last 3 times I've held her for a while she has mostly been a ball but after about 20 min she will make herself more comfortable once she does this she takes a lil turd on me lol. This last time she took two turds and a wee on me. Man do they have a lot of pee in them sometimes! I've never seen her pee so I didn't know what to expect but it seemed like...all of it... Haha is she doing this out of stress or cause she's not potty trained? Or a sort of marking? She has also started pooping in her lil home where she sleeps. Not sure why? Any help would be appreciated.
 
The snuggletime pottying is fairly common. Think of it a bit like when you get up in the morning and you start the weighing your desire to stay in bed another few minutes against the needs of your increasingly full bladder. You can put it off for a bit, but bladder is going to win. Her bladder is going to win too. That and the poop.

Since she has a pattern at snuggletime, I'd just adapt to it. Shortly before the 20 minute mark, I'd peek under the blankie to see if she's assumed "the stance." You know, the one where her back legs are a little more straight and wide than normal and her tail is up in the "ready to do my business" pose? Assuming you see that, scoop her up and set her in a safe place to go potty. I find it easy to bring one of those triangular litter boxes out during snuggle time... that and some hedgiewipes (ie, baby wipes) to mop up any oopses. You might just scoop her up and help her to the litterbox around the 20 minute mark even if she hasn't yet assumed the stance since that's the final last warning before potty time begins.

As for pooping and peeing where she sleeps, that's a bit more of a concern. I'd double-check everything in her home:
- that it's warm enough at night that she feels comfortable getting up and out of her sleeping area to do her business
- that she has an area to poop and pee in. Many do their business on their wheels - what's her wheel situation like? Others have special places - I have one who consistently goes behind the wheel, so I have to leave a space there. Another poops on her wheel, but pees directly in front of it, so I put extra fleece wheel mats there to catch the messies there.
- that it's dark enough at night that she feels comfortable doing her business wherever she wants
- consider swapping out the aspen shavings for fleece. Pertinent to this situation (ie, there are additional good reasons for using fleece), it will allow you to keep track of what's going on better (you'll be able to see the poops and pee, instead of it being hidden by the aspen). Also, she could easily interpret her entire home as a litter box. Use fleece as a liner and pop the aspen in the litter box. When she makes a poop, put the poop in the box. Make sure she has a blankie in her igloo/hiding spot so she can burrow and rearrange it as desired. You can make it easy on yourself by getting a yard or two of fleece and cutting it to the size you want (run it through the washer and dryer first, though!).

And look her over to see if there's anything funny going on with her belly;
- I'm wonder if this is an "oh no! Belly's upset! I'm not going to make it to the 'toilet' issue." More specifically, take a look at her poops. Are they brown logs? Tinged with green? How big? What's their consistency - firm, damp while holding their shape, toothpaste, runny?
- how's she eating... and what kind of food?
- and, of course, since she's in her third home, who knows what's going on psychologically with her. It may take some time before she both understands and trusts that she is safe, things are okay, etc...

And yeah, despite their small size, hedgies are able to produce a whopping amount of messies. After observing potty time, you think "okay, she's gotta be 'empty' now," then up pops the tail and out comes a 1.5 inch log.
 
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