What to expect? (Quilling)

[Free2Dream]

My little Annabelle is around 4 months old. Recently I have noticed that she is a very itchy girl. I took her out to play last night and she did a lot of scratching in between her usual fits of napping and exploring. A little while ago I thought she might have mites, but she doesn't display any other symptoms - no excessive dandruff or quill loss, or crusty deposits. I have arranged a vet visit later in the week just to be safe, but now I'm beginning to think she might have started quilling. When I was trying to sleep last night, she kept itching while she was running on her wheel - all I could hear was her little feet striking her quills - it made ME itchy! lol!

What can I do to ease her itchies? I have heard that Aveeno oatmeal bath can help soothe her skin? Also, can I expect her to lose a ton of quills at once (aka, will she be balding, haha) or very gradually? My mom suggested that I could collect her quills to make a necklace, which I might want to do - but I am very new to this!

Thank you!

 

[hedgepig]

When Bilbo was quilling, I would just give him a bath in that Aveeno oatmeal bath and it seemed to help. And ,from my experience, there will probably be some sparse spots on thier backs, but it might be different for each hog.
The necklace idea sounds great too! I only found about 5 quills (2 in my foot....), but I've heard you can get a lot from quilling. You could also put it in the "name on rice" bottles, it would look really cool! I hope this helps, good luck!

 

[Kalandra]

What can I do to ease her itchies? I have heard that Aveeno oatmeal bath can help soothe her skin? Also, can I expect her to lose a ton of quills at once (aka, will she be balding, haha) or very gradually? My mom suggested that I could collect her quills to make a necklace, which I might want to do - but I am very new to this!

Thank you!

An oatmeal bath can help relieve some of the itchies. But also keep in mind that if you bathe too often it can dry the skin and cause itchies, so use it sparingly.

She may or may not lose a lot of quills at once. As an example Rose & Riley (sister/brother). Rose lost so few quills that I hardly ever found hers. Riley dropped a lot of quills and did so constantly. He stopped quilling a lot faster than she did.

You should not see any bald spots appear during a normal quilling. Bald spots usually mean there is something else wrong. Mites are often a cause of balding.

As for the necklace, I actually wear a memory vial. Its a vial of quills from hedgehogs that have passed on. It has quills in it from all the hedgehogs I've had except 1 (my first hedgehog who died in 2000) and the ones that are currently living.

The vial can be purchased from : http://www.pilotvials.com/patent-lip-vials.html

And instructions on how to make a vial necklace can be found at: http://www.pilotvials.com/VialNecklace.html