spend RM40 on a toyogo box then.

you can find it at jusco, carrefour, econsave, whatever supermarket out there. but just make sure it's deep enough that your hedgehog can't climb out from the box.

sometime over half a year ago a regular forumer here, who's a hobbyist breeder, had posted something regarding importing pintos into malaysia. but apparently it's going to be a bit too long a process and kinda expensive to bring one in, so it didn't happen. looking at 4 digits' worth of hassle...

that's all i recall, but if you have the time you can browse through V4 or even V3, i don't really remember when the discussion took place.

may i know if you got it from a breeder or from the petstore?

hoglets around 3-4 weeks are not ready to be living independently because they still require the mother's milk. at this age it's not surprising that your hoglet is still crawling with the front legs because they're not really ready to be taken away from the mother hedgehog.

if your hoglet really is less than 2-months old, i suggest you PM crazymouse (one of the moderators in pets wonderland) and ask for her advices in handfeeding milk to your hoglet. i don't think there are many owners who're experienced enough to take care of hoglets as young as yours.

at 4 weeks old i don't think they can eat solid food yet, you need to feed them milk. cat food kibbles are a bit too hardy for them to chew.

personally i'm mixing three types of RC catfood, babycat 34, kitten 34 and fit 32. i got the large pack of babycat 34 since both my hedgehogs take this one without hesitation, my S&P hedgehog usually throws all the fit 32 out of his bowl although occasionally he finishes up everything. the other one eats anything i put into the bowl.

even the 400g pack will be able to last for more than a month, based on my experience, but like bonai, i feed them once a day, approximately 1.5 tablespoon (mixture of all three types of catfood) everytime.

and feeding them mealworms twice a week, about 5-6 per time.

hope it helps.

i think you'll need to go around to search for 400g RC packs. i went to more than half a dozen shops but couldn't find any RC34 (babycat & kitten) last month, not sure if it's because the stock hasn't arrived or what. took me 2 weeks of searching before i finally bought the 2.5kg pack, had to since i was running out of catfood then.

if you happen to buy the 2.5kg pack (like me), make sure it's properly sealed to keep it fresh. my hedgehogs won't eat the kibbles after it's left out for one night, smart fellas...

personally i think 32 fit is more suitable for hedgehogs because of the lower fat content, but while one of mine eats anything i put in the bowl, the other one usually rather not eat if i feed 32 fit only, which is why i'm mixing up a few RCs now. but as long as they're doing their part and running in the wheels everynight i guess it's alright.

perhaps it's because i fed it with the smaller kibbles (34 kitten & babycat) since young, the hedgehog doesn't enjoy the bigger kibbles of 32 fit.

on the litter training thing, although several members here mentioned that they have litter-trained their hedgehogs, mine still poop all over the place no matter what i do, so i've given up a long time ago. not sure if it's a myth, hahahaha...

i don't think a hedgehog can be as friendly as how i think you hope it would be.

as most of us already know, hedgehogs' temperaments are inherited, so if it's grumpy it's very unlikely that you can change it's temper that easily. of course, previous owner's care plays a part as well. if it's used to not being handled by human, it's natural for the hedgehog to raise its quills when they see unfamiliar moving things.

besides, hedgehogs are solitary animals, not like dogs, you can play with it all day long and it will still be like how it is because it's how they behave.

but don't judge your hedgehog so fast, many owners here have hedgehogs with all sorts of temperaments, and everyone have a story to tell, so maybe your grumpy pet will turn out to be a great pet for you.

yours could be what most of us here term as snowflake, but to be honest it's quite hard to put a specific colour on the hedgehogs as they are categorized in many aspects. from description i think it could be a dark grey or grey.

while we're still in this topic, i think i can roughly assume that we have termed our hedgehog colours quite wrongly as very few of us have real salt & pepper. the majority of hedgehogs we see here are usually dark grey, grey, chocolate and i think there's a lucky few who have cinnamon or cinnicots too. and from the pictures i think we all have algerian hedgehogs.

salt & pepper hedgehogs have cream quills with 'black' bands. ours usually are dark brown bands or somewhere there.

meanwhile, it's not a snowflake unless the banded and white quills are evenly spread (50/50) or approximately there. but i think we messed up the categories as many petstores try to sell off their hedgehogs at a higher price by categorizing them as snowflakes even when they have like 20-30 white quills only.

i don't have any snowflakes so i can't show you any pictures, but i do own an algerian grey (with few white quills) and another one which i assume to be an algerian white. what type of white i'm not too sure (there's chocolate white, cinnamon white, blah blah blah you get the picture), but it's actually from bonai, and he told me it's a snowflake back then, hahaha...

This post has been edited by livingmonolith: Aug 27 2008, 04:02 PM

one of mine looked to be a snowflake when it was still a hoglet, but as he grows more and more white quills shed and are replaced with banded ones...

i referred here for my categorizations.

but of course, that's why i said there are many ways to categorize hedgehog's colours, i'm not too bothered though.

mine still occasionally bite my fingers when i bring them out of the cage. but they usually self-annoint after that, so i guess they're just getting back the familiar smell of the owners. my hedgehogs usually will lick and bite after shower, not just my finger but the pieces of cloth, my own clothes, my foot even, so it's pretty normal, don't worry.

would like to share some good news here, my hedgehog has given birth to three cute hoglets on tuesday, all of them in good health and the mommy hedgie is very protective for the time being.

too bad i was outstation when it happened, couldn't witness the cute little fellas when the mommy just gave birth (my family saw the hoglets about 5-6 hours after their birth). early on the hoglets keep dropping out from the hidebox and my girlfriend had to keep scooping them back in using a plastic spoon. the mommy hedgehog was very good, kept lifting the entire box to try and cover up all three hoglets but i guess the box was too small, in the end i told them to replace the hidebox with a bigger shoebox and now all of them are nicely tucked inside.

hope to peek at them more often in the coming week, so far i only saw them once when the mommy went out for a drink, all three are already bigger than my thumb, hahaha, it's a great moment for me and my family, these days everyone in my family takes time to watch them grow bigger day by day.

thanks all for the wishes. so far i've managed to look at them only once, don't think i want to do anything more in the coming week until they're big enough to move around.

this is actually the second time i tried breeding them, the first time it was unsuccessful. but anyway i think all three should do fine until they reach 2 weeks old and won't be cannibalized (touchwood). on the first day itself the hoglets were dropping out from the box too many times and they were put back into the box using plastic spoons, even the hidebox was changed during that time because there was too much big movements from the mommy hedgehog while feeding the hoglets. the mommy was very cautious and protective, but definitely not harming the little ones, all three were tucked at one side nicely waiting for mommy's milk when i peeped into the box.

the male hedgehog is a normal algerian dark grey (or S&P snowflake for some), while the female resembles an algerian chocolate white, but i don't think i'll be able to categorize it with my experience. i think bonai posted quite a few photos of the female hedgehog here previously, if anyone wants to know what's its colour. maybe bonai can do me a favour and re-post the photos again? besides, i have yet to learn how to upload photos here in lyn.

yes, RC kibbles are generally more solid compared to iams. naturally because iams is somewhat a bit lower in grade and the kibbles are not as compact as RC's. i think you can figure out yourself when you compare the prices alone, there's a reason why iams are selling their catfood much cheaper. besides, you did mention that your hedgehog was eating RC more, so that explains the quality.

even hedgehogs know good food when they see them, don't you think?

not really.

in the video shown the hedgehog is struggling to stay afloat and it doesn't look to be enjoying paddling in the water and flipping over. it could even drown if not looked after.

no doubt hedgehogs will be able to paddle and get around, but i'll still maintain my opinion that they don't really swim in nature. if you throw them into the water of course they'll try their best to stay afloat and get to the nearest shore. of course they'll do that, if not they'll just drown, won't they?

well, i think it's safe to say that every hedgehog has their own preferences, i have been keeping 2 hedgehogs (now 5 including the hoglets but they're not taking solid food yet), and both of them are different in terms of choosing their food. one only eats RC kitten, as fresh as possible, but can't finish a tablespoon a day. the other one pratically eats everything i put in the bowl, whether it's RC babycat, kitten or fit, and sometimes 2 tablespoons aren't enough for it!

i think it's only a rough guide on the selection of food (whether it's RC, eagle pack, etc), you'll need to know which one your hedgehog would like to eat by trying them all. if it's not picky, then you're pretty lucky.

how old is your hedgehog?

hedgehogs around the age of 2-5 months are still shedding their baby quills, and will be replaced with longer ones. usually you will only see the real colour of your hedgehog after 6 months, when your hedgehog's quills are all fully replaced.

when i got my first hedgehog, it has almost the same amount of white and banded quills, as it grow most of the white ones were replaced with banded quills.

added info there, but yeah, so you don't have to worry about the quills shedding off. it's normal.