She finally Anointed! ..With Yogurt?

sincerity06 · Mar 28, 2009

My little bella has grown into a wonderful pig. She sleeps in her little tunnel or in her hedgie sock. However, today, we had a bath (toothbrush, little thing of water, and earthbath shampoo (aloe and oatmeal)). After the bath, she gets a treat, of mealworms or some such. Today, I whipped out the plain unsugared natural yogurt, and she went BONKERS!

She tipped the dish (nearly on herself, my poor baby had little yogurt feet), and dipped her nose in. Almost immediately, it looked like she seized up, her teeth were showing, her head awkwardly cranked over her shoulder. Her body, rather than the puffy body i'm used to went flat (like, raising hackles on a dog), and she started aggressively licking her bum, her shoulder, and the top of her head..

A) is it common, with foods, to anoint?
B) is this .."seized" motion the typical anoint?
C) are hedgehogs left or right side oriented (like humans, left or right hand.) because all of her anoints were on the left of her body.

Thanks! :dance3:

hedgie_kid · Mar 28, 2009

Well my hedgehog has never really done a full hearted anointing but the closest she has gotten was when I gave her a mealworm for the first time. So to answer question a, I'd say it is a pretty common thing. Based on the pictures and the "anointing" i've seen from my hedgie, I'd say the "seized" motion is pretty common. As for question c, I really have no clue. My guess is that they probably have one but weather they realize it or not, I don't know. Or maybe they do have a preference!?! That gives me a lot of ideas and I'll try to look up some info on that. Hope this helps!

Melissa · Mar 29, 2009

Aero used to dive into a bowl of yogurt like he never ate before in his life! I almost thought several times that he would anoint but he didnt... ever...

The rest of my gang has anointed and I havent noticed a particular side that they reach to! They go both ways.. So unless my whole gang was full of ambidextirous hogs I personally dont think they are side oriented..

For the "seize" motion did it look like whats in this video If so its completely normal..

AlbertaGirl · Mar 29, 2009

Trust a hedgehog to wait until AFTER the bath to annoint... especially with something like yogurt! Ronnie always annoints on one side (that I've seen, anyway), and Phoebe doesn't really annoint at all.