Back!

Many things have happened since my last blog post! I moved to Boston, for example, and my camera broke. It seemed a little silly to update the blog without pictures: they're pretty much the point. Here are some new ones and a little text!

I still have Sophie, Nacho, Garland, and Canoe. Michael Phelps lives with Dad and my sister now, and Motorboat and Calcifer were adopted by two awesome people through the Hedgehog Welfare Society. 

Sophie and Nacho are sharing a cage on top of a table. Garland is under the table 

and Canoe is next to it. They used to be together too, but I had to separate them in November or December because Canoe was getting really aggressive. Their cages used to share a wall, and I would hear Canoe rattling it all night trying to get to him.

Here is a picture of Steve holding Canoe! It doesn't really capture how small Canoe is - he's nearly 100 grams lighter than Sophie.

Canoe is still Steve's favorite. He's very friendly, and I am trying to train him not to put his visor up when people handle him. He needs to do well in the conformation show at the hedgehog show!

Nacho only seems to like one person, but when she sees her she goes crazy. It's adorable! That's Nacho on the left. This is just after

I weighed her and just before I tried cutting her nails. It took about 20 minutes to get 1.5 paws! She is very stubborn. She currently weighs 460 grams, which is down 10g since 3/25. She also has sneezes, but only when I have her belly-up trying to get her nails or when I'm filling the sink for her bath. She still has some of the white stripe she had as a baby, and has a darker mask than Sophie but lighter than Canoe. I'm not super good with hedgehog colors, but I think she is lighter than either of her parents. 

Garland is doing well - he tried to hibernate during the drive to Boston and again at one point in January, but I was able to warm him up and he has been going strong since. He's still grumpier than any of the others and wants nothing to do with toilet paper tubes, boxes full of tissue paper 

strips, jingly balls, stuffed animals, or pretty much anything that isn't kibble or a wheel. He does like snuggling, though, and it is the cutest thing when he falls asleep on my lap with a paw sticking out. :D Here he is checking out some new stinky cat food! He didn't like it. :( 

The drive from Minneapolis to Boston was super long, but Steve and I only stopped once (in Milwaukee). We were driving through New York at about 4 in the morning when I felt something tickling my ankle and pulling on my pants leg. I looked down and Nacho was in the footwell! She and Sophie had somehow gotten out of their Sterilite bin and were running around the car. It was terrible! I couldn't find Sophie until we got to Medford.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be taking pictures more often now that I have a working xD card. Sorry about the long and unnanounced hiatus!

Hedgehogs Like Things

Garland and Michael Phelps check out this totally sweet box in their hastily constructed hedgehog corral. They liked the tissue box better, probably because it was darker inside.








I put Sophie in Nacho's bin while I was washing their blankets, and she decided to kick Nacho out of her bag (despite the elaborate paper towel fortifications Nacho had put in place). Nacho made it back in eventually, though.

Calcifer and Motorboat

Calcifer and Motorboat were adopted last week! Here they are before they left. (Motorboat and Lena are in the picture on the top.) I placed them through the Hedgehog Welfare Society, who are pretty much the best people ever.

Hey Hey

So, the babies turned 2 months old today. I gave them their first real bath in the tub as a special surprise, which none of them seemed to mind at all. I've named all of them, by the way. The two girls are Nacho and Calcifer, the three boys are Motorboat, Michael Phelps, and Funyon.

In picture 1 you see Garland, thinking about pooping on the couch. (spoiler - he didn't)


This is Nacho thrashing around in the tub.








Here is Motorboat, doing laps. He loves doing laps.

Michael Phelps the hedgehog swims like a rockstar too, actually.

Photos From Ages Ago

Sorry about the lack of pictures! Here are a couple I got off of my camera from 8/11 (the babies would have been about 3 1/2 weeks old). This was the first time that I saw any of them leave the blankety area of Sophie's bins, and the baby who was in there first spent about half an hour annointing with everything. The food bowl, the water bowl, the wheel, the paper towels, the walls ... pretty much everything but the food. :)

Day 23

They've gotten a lot less wobbly in the past few days. Sophie was pacing around her food area when I came downstairs last night, so I put her wheel in to see if she'd use it. 30 minutes later, she was still wheeling. She eventually got off to have some kibbles so I nabbed it. 2.45 is way too late for me. :)

Day 21

They're three weeks old today, and they're looking much more like hedgehogs. The fur on their faces and bellies is about as thick as adult fur, and their eyes are completely open. Their snouts are still smushed looking and they still lurch when they walk, but I'm really impressed by how far they've come.

The blanket was pulled back a little so I watched them for a while, and it looks like they spend most of their time either drinking milk or asleep with their mouth still open. Cutest thing ever!

I've started feeding Sophie and Garland a mixture of Solid Gold Katz 'n Flocken and Orijen's lite formula. Sophie ate a ton of the new kibbles really fast (carefully avoiding the old stuff) and anointed alllll over with it, but Garland has been picking out the old kibbles and won't touch the new stuff. I also offered him peas last night, but he was not interested.