Litter's first week

Have been busy monitoring the health of the hoglets for the past few days. Sometimes having too many in a litter doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing.

I was somewhat worried that the mother hedgehog couldn't proper care for all five hoglets equally, and a couple of days ago I was even more concerned to see three of the hoglets sleeping at the edge of the hidebox and were visibly very much smaller than the other two. Having too many siblings, there could be possibilities that some may not receive enough milk from the mother hedgehog and couldn't survive the first few weeks after birth.

However, I'm glad to say that all five are looking pretty active and grew longer quills during today's inspection, at least the growth shows that all are in proper health condition.

One of the hoglets looks like an albino, although it's still early to confirm. But it has reddish skin and all white quills, which will be something that needs further analysis as it grows older. Both parents are not albinos to start with, so if the hoglet really turns out to be an albino it will further concrete the idea that albino genes are recessive in hedgehogs. So far I've only seen albino offsprings if either or both parents are albino, but this is the first time to see an albino coming from non-albino parents.

The other four siblings are clear Salt & Peppers, and with only a little variation in size, all hoglets are doing great at the moment.

Next post, photo update!