I got my darling hedgie on Thursday (not on Mon, as I'd expected, long story.) She is now snugly ensconced in a HUGE Hagen ZooZone 2(Product Placement! Product Placement!) which is abt a meter long. Her home is furnished with a godawful giganto wheel, a little dish for mealworms(eeew), a long trough for her basic food, a nice new waterbottle, some rocks to climb over, a lovely little hideaway, and a cat toy. Life couldn't be better for her, I tell you. Unless there was a Mr Hedgie waddling over the horizon ... heh heh heh ... but I'm not ready to be a grandmother yet.
Anyway.
Her first day home she slept in the food trough.
All I could see of my darling Kimi Maia (yes, I'd finally decided on a name - or two) was a spiky little egg-shaped thing in the food trough. Any attempt to wake her would generate a sudden erection (get your minds out of the gutter, people) of her quills - even if she's still a baby, it's damn painful laaar. Aaanyway, I thought it best to leave her alone to explore her new home.
Day Two: She slept in the mealworm dish. Well, I dunno if she actually slept in it, but she did sit right on top of it and spend about half an hour keeping still and looking very pensive. She might have just been going to the toilet in it.... aaarggg.
Day Three: She finally found her giganto wheel.
It is now the most favourite thing in her cage and she spends all her time running/sleeping/pooping in it. Up until now there hasn't been any evidence that she's even noticed the expensive hideaway that was bought for the express purpose of sleeping.
Day Four: I've started to try and get her used to me. I'll come up to the cage while she's running in her wheel (doesn't she know already that that thing doesn't GO anywhere???) and make appropriately calming cooing noises. She responds by suddenly petrifying and giving a very good impression of a deer caught in headlights. Maybe she thinks if she's v-e-e-e-r-r-r-y s-t-i-l-l I won't see her.
Day Five: I'm now being all brave and gung-ho (if you've ever seen a grumpy, spiky, hissing hedgehog you'll know what I mean) and actually putting my hand into the cage, and gently stroking her quills, and moving my hand about so she gets used to the sounds, sights, and smells of me. It seems to be going very well. With any luck, the deer-caught-in-headlights act will be a thing of the past. She still trys to run away from me in the wheel (I suppose that's one of the major reasons humans are the more evolved species on Earth and not hedgehogs) - she'll run like mad on the wheel, then stop a while to sniff my hand. Nope, still there. Then she'll continue running again. 2 minutes later, stop, sniff, run. Repeat until I get bored or she gets tired.
This morning she was doing it again. I got bored and left her running on her wheel like the very demons of hell were after her. When I came back 5 minutes later, she was fast asleep on her wheel. It was as if she'd dropped where she stood. Maybe it's some sort of hedgie sleep apnea or something.
Well, I'm feeling much better about having a hedgie for a pet. Ask me two days ago, and I'd have been going "What the hell did I DO?" but now things are looking up. We might bond enuff for me to pick her up, and have her use me as her personal Jungle Gym. Oh, and also poop on me when she's inclined to. Hmmm... having said that, I'm now not so sure humans are the more evolved species after all.
End of raving.
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