Hedgehog

Our new family member

Today (July 24, 2004) we picked up the latest member of our household... a very sweet and friendly African pygmy hedgehog.

The photos below are the first we made of her... She was 10 weeks old, and not been named yet.

Click on the small photos for larger images

The three photos above were the evening we got her home. The photo below was supplied by the breeder, and is a week or two earlier.

Notes:

The little girl has been named Violet
She's adapting well, eating from a dish, drinking from a water bottle, sleeping in one of Josh's shirts.
I understand that sometimes owners start to look like their pets... I've seen some evidence of that. Take a look by clicking here.

Notes September 4 2004:

Violet seems to be doing well, sleeping a lot, but that's expected for a baby. She likes sleeping between two layers of Vellux blanket that we're using for her bedding.
She LOVES to run on her wheel at night... speedy little thing!
She has quite an appetite, eating a mixture of several dry cat foods, and supplemented with treats.
We're offering Violet various treats to see what she takes to. So far, she really enjoys freeze dried mealworms and crickets. A surprise was that she seems to like popcorn. When she finds something she likes, she "annoints" herself with it. This is a peculiar hedgehog behavior whereby she foams the food in her mouth and spreads it all over her body. Hey, she's a hedgehog <s>

Here are a few more photos taken last week (about 15 weeks old)... she's grown a bit.

Notes November 22, 2004:

Violet has grown a bit... maturing nicely.
Lauren bought a small inflatable kiddie pool that we sometimes put on our living room floor for Violet to run around in. She's quite the little clown!
In typical hedgehog fashion, she loves to play with a toilet paper tube. She sticks her head into the tube, runs around, then acts as if she wants to get out. It's hard to resist the temptation to help her out, but she's quite good at removing it herself (sometimes rolling over on her back or side as shown below.) When we do take it off her, she immediately sticks her head back in, and the process starts all over again.
Sometimes (as in the photos below), she'll play with a small ball, in this case she was chewing it, pushing it, and carrying it around the pool.
We've also come to the conclusion that the girl can be bribed. Whenever we want to wake her up, we uncover her (she tends to sleep under one of the Vellux layers of her bedding). She balls up and huffs at us... UNTIL we wave a freeze dried mealworm near her. Then she's quite willing to come out and play (she can be bought!)

May 15, 2007

In August 2006, Violet developed mammary tumors and uterine bleeding that were inoperable. We decided to do our best to keep her comfortable.

After a long illness, Violet passed away this evening.

In the past couple of weeks she would spread out and pant, but otherwise she never complained.

She'd pretty much lost her sense of smell, and we switched her over to softer food last week because she was having difficulty with the dried cat food. Considering she was diagnosed last August, I think we are all surprised she lasted this long.

I did make a little video of her a few weeks back after a bath, I'll try to post it soon.

Violet was a sweet little girl and will be missed.

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