Cannibalism

I have read various articles and forums of breeders who've experienced watching their pet hedgehog cannibalize the young ones, and I thought it will be something that I will only read on the internet. Unfortunately, I witnessed one of the young hoglets getting cannibalized by its own mother.

I have yet to figure out the reason why. Different information sources state that it could be due to birth defect, and some mentioned that the mother could've been stressed. The hoglet has been growing fine like its siblings, at least from the size observed, and being able to move and chirp normally I doubt the hoglet has any health problems.

And this is the third litter Quills gave birth to, so I expected her to be able to cope comfortably. She has been very good-tempered during the first week after giving birth that it came as a shock when I found the hoglet's headless corpse lying outside the hidebox.

It saddens me to think that the hoglet will not be able to see the world before going to heaven. It was barely a week old when its life ended. And I pray hard that the rest of the hoglets grow healthily until adulthood.

Baby hedgehogs

My traveling has hindered me from updating my blogs for the past month, and possibly in the coming couple of months as well.

But there's always some time to share some good news. :)

Last Friday Quills gave birth again, to five hoglets, again, and from the initial monitoring, it looks like the colours will be the same as the previous batch as well, 4 Salt & Peppers and 1 Albino, again!

All hoglets are in the pinkest of health, and this time around the young ones look to be a complaining bunch, squeking aloud everytime I open up the hidebox to have a look. Quills is a bit too familiar with everything though, she's much more relaxed and comfortable with me around taking a peek at the hoglets (newborn hoglets are not to be touched in the first two weeks to avoid cannibalism) without being possessive.

It took almost a month for my Cinnamon hedgehog (which I got early last month) to start coming out from the hidebox with my presence in the room, I actually managed to handfeed it for the first time last night. Still trying to tame it and make it feel comfy at home, and looks to be getting some positive results there.

By the way, I've finally decided on names the albino and cinnamon hedgehogs. I'm gonna name the albino 'Latte' and the cinnamon 'Caramel'.

Latte will be turning 4 months old next weekend, while Caramel will be 3 months old by the end of this week.

Won't be able to update pictures lately as my computer crashed last month with all the photos saved in the hard drive, but the pictures will definitely start coming in as soon as the computer is fixed!

New hoglet joining the family!

Tonight will be the night I pick up a female Cinnamon hoglet from a breeder friend.

At the moment, the only information I have about this hedgehog is that she's born on the 18th April 2009, which makes her approximately 6 weeks old right now and just ready to leave the mother hedgehog.

I will be dusting up a cabinet and improvising it to be a multiple-storey boxes as homes for my expanding number of hedgehogs.

And I am considering naming the two young hedgehogs (the other one is an Albino from Quills' second litter) after bringing the Cinnamon home.

Hmm, this will take some thinking.