# Pregnant hedgehog....



## Guest

Incase you dont know her story. 
http://www.petforums.co.uk/small-animal-chat/181678-poppy-hedgehogs-thread.html

Yup she's pregnant...we knew that her owner had mated her but hoped she wouldnt have taken. Turns out she has...shes HUGE!

She's currently using a shoe box as her nest in her viv while my granddad makes her a wooden house.

I managed to sneak a picture of her yesterday, laying in her nesting position.









I have my hand rearing kit ready incase. I just hope she manages okay.


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## twilight

how exiting i know you hoped she wasnt buteven so new life its amazing.keep us posted kazxx


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## manic rose

aw pregnant hoggy! hope it all goes well


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## Guest

Poor Poppy 

I hope everything goes well.


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## Guest

Thanks guys'

I have started giving her more additions to her diet as she's pretty much due this week.

Yesterday she had scrambled egg with goats milk and today mince meat.


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## Lil Miss

poor poppy, fingers crossed for a small litter and no complication


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## Devil-Dogz

Bless her, glad you have your kit - I have hand reared hogs before, but wild ones. good luck poor thing.


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## Guest

Lil Miss said:


> poor poppy, fingers crossed for a small litter and no complication


I am hoping for 1 or 2 because I am happy to keep both. 
But I just pray her body can handle it.
I would not be upset if she killed the litter.



Devil-Dogz said:


> Bless her, glad you have your kit - I have hand reared hogs before, but wild ones. good luck poor thing.


Thanks DD. I have hand reared cats and dogs but never hedgehogs...first time for everything. :lol:


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## twilight

sweetheart all life is precious kazxx


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## niki87

Now are you SURE she's pregnant??? hmy:

Lol well hope everything goes smoothly for her!! Hopefully u will soon be hearing the pitter patter of huffy hoggy feet


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## Guest

niki87 said:


> Now are you SURE she's pregnant??? hmy:
> 
> Lol well hope everything goes smoothly for her!! Hopefully u will soon be hearing the pitter patter of huffy hoggy feet


100% positive. 
Her nipples are HUGE, she's HUGE, she's building a nest, she's eating triple and drinking triple and her belly's so big you can see vains.


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## CreativeLC

I hope everything goes well


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## Guest

No sign of babies yet. If the old owner was truthful she will be on day 28-30 ish. 
Average is 34-36 days. So within the next week or so.

Last night she had mince meat for tea which she cleared the bowl of after 5mins.


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## twilight

shes in good hands i know you will do your best for both poppy and her babies keep us posted kazx


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## LyndaDanny

Oh poor girl, she is mahoosive! Hope everything goes well for her.


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## codyann

hope all goes well


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## Guest

Still no babies but last night I went to top up her food and she came out to say Hiii so picture.


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## Nico0laGouldsmith

awwww good luck


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## niki87

shetlandlover said:


> 100% positive.
> Her nipples are HUGE, she's HUGE, she's building a nest, she's eating triple and drinking triple and her belly's so big you can see vains.


Lol sorry I was joking she is massive!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope they come soon!!


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## twilight

hope there safely here soon thinking of you kazxx


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## Guest

Poppy gave birth today (between the hours of 4am and 1pm).
No idea how many as she wont let anyone look yet.hmy:


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## mstori

ooh did it all go ok? do you know if they survived?


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## Guest

mstori said:


> ooh did it all go ok? do you know if they survived?


I can hear squeaking but like hamsters you cant disturb the nest or touch the babies or mum may kill them, so I am staying firmly away until they are older.

I have herd mum moving around but not seen her yet she's keeping a low profile.


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## mstori

how exciting! bet its killing you!

bit like when we had the baby bunnies! everyone told me i couldnt disturb the nest cos mammy would kill them, but when i opened the door to feed them she showed them to me, good job cos i would have sat there 24/7 waiting :lol:

hope you get to see them. i dont know anything about them, how many are you expecting?


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## Guest

I hope everything goes well with mum and babies


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## Lil Miss

oooh exciting times!!! 
hope everything goes well for mum and bubs!

fingers crossed hun


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## manic rose

fingers crossed all goes well. cant wait to see the first pics


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## Guest

Quick update....Poppy has let me look in on them twice now without any fuss I can confirm 5 little spike babies.


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## Sarah+Hammies

Wow 5 little prickles!!! Congratulations, i hope things continue to go well. xxx


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## Guest

This morning I managed to sneak a couple of pictures but they are bad quality as I didnt want to overuse the flash.

















They are all this colour.








Which was the best picture I could get by bouncing the flash off the front of the viv.

I didnt want to impose to much as Poppy was eating some food but yeah, they are all pretty much that colour and all squeak alot. :lol:


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## DKDREAM

wow Congratulations!!!! they look cute.


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> wow Congratulations!!!! they look cute.


Thanks, it feels weird to go from 3 hedgehogs to 8 in the space of a few days.:001_cool:


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> Thanks, it feels weird to go from 3 hedgehogs to 8 in the space of a few days.:001_cool:


I bet it does but you will enjoy seeing them grow  how many are you keeping? are they expensive to feed?


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> I bet it does but you will enjoy seeing them grow  how many are you keeping? are they expensive to feed?


Keeping 1 or 2....I keep telling myself that. But knowing me I will possibly not know what to keep and keep them all. :lol:

But on the space I have left...I can only really keep 1 or 2 more before needing to build more viv's.

Not really, they are fed on a mix of 3 different dry chicken flavored cat food. They eat about 1 bowl ever 2-3 days depending.


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> Keeping 1 or 2....I keep telling myself that. But knowing me I will possibly not know what to keep and keep them all. :lol:
> 
> But on the space I have left...I can only really keep 1 or 2 more before needing to build more viv's.
> 
> Not really, they are fed on a mix of 3 different dry chicken flavored cat food. They eat about 1 bowl ever 2-3 days depending.


I read you shouldn't feed fish based it has to be chicken. I would like to own one later when the times right. they seem fascinating pets. Do they litter train easily


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## Guest

I'm glad everyting is going well for Poppy bless her 



DKDREAM said:


> I read you shouldn't feed fish based it has to be chicken. I would like to own one later when the times right. they seem fascinating pets. Do they litter train easily


If you call pooping on their wheel litter trained then yeah


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## Guest

B3rnie said:


> I'm glad everyting is going well for Poppy bless her
> 
> If you call pooping on their wheel litter trained then yeah


Hell yea.

I spend most of my time scrubbing the wheels down. :lol:


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## Guest

shetlandlover said:


> Hell yea.
> 
> I spend most of my time scrubbing the wheels down. :lol:


hehe everyday for me, I get a bit ocd on my wheel :lol:


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## Guest

B3rnie said:


> hehe everyday for me, I get a bit ocd on my wheel :lol:


Same here, every morning I scrub them down and every night they poop on them again. :lol:

I need them to be clean though otherwise it drives me mad.

God I have 8 lots of poo to clean up now not just 3.hmy:


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> Same here, every morning I scrub them down and every night they poop on them again. :lol:
> 
> I need them to be clean though otherwise it drives me mad.
> 
> God I have 8 lots of poo to clean up now not just 3.hmy:


eeek lol Thanks for the caresheet  I like the extreme snowflake hedgies (dew) they are quite rare arnt they?


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> eeek lol Thanks for the caresheet  I like the extreme snowflake hedgies (dew) they are quite rare arnt they?


They are.
I am on a waiting list for a litter later this year/next year from a DEW mum. They are pretty hard to come by.


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> They are.
> I am on a waiting list for a litter later this year/next year from a DEW mum. They are pretty hard to come by.


thats the colour id love if/when i get one, its like any animal though DEW ferrets are hard too.


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> thats the colour id love if/when i get one, its like any animal though DEW ferrets are hard too.


I used to have a DEW ferret called Gene. She was lovely.

They are lovely. I want a DEW hedgehog but its a long waiting guessing game.


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> I used to have a DEW ferret called Gene. She was lovely.
> 
> They are lovely. I want a DEW hedgehog but its a long waiting guessing game.


im lucky I have 5 DEW girls and 3 boys. I plan on breeding bella next year as she will be 4. (I bred her have her mum and dad)


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## manic rose

aw the pic is so sweet, even if they do look like miniature hairbrushes!


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## PrincessGingy

The babies look adorable! I'm so glad everything went alright for Poppy, I was worried about her. Is she still doing well?


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## Guest

PrincessGingy said:


> The babies look adorable! I'm so glad everything went alright for Poppy, I was worried about her. Is she still doing well?


She is doing very very well. I am so pleased she's coping. She looks very tired though.


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## LostGirl

Aaawwww wow they are cute! 
Well done mummy x


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## Guest

Managed to snap these today. Poppy's looking tired.


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## Guest

Aww bless them, Poppy does look tired poor girl. She shouldn't have to be going through this


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## Guest

B3rnie said:


> Aww bless them, Poppy does look tired poor girl. She shouldn't have to be going through this


She's a great mum but you can tell she's not old enough to cope with the strain. I have my hand rearing kit ready incase I need to take over as she is looking very very tired now. :crying:


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## Guest

shetlandlover said:


> She's a great mum but you can tell she's not old enough to cope with the strain. I have my hand rearing kit ready incase I need to take over as she is looking very very tired now. :crying:


I hope that she manages ok. She is looking so tired


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## LostGirl

She's had quite a big litter hasn't she? Poor girl hope she manages to carry on without causing herself any problems


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## DKDREAM

How are the babies doing and Poppy


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## Guest

6 days old today.

























Poppy's looking much better.









I may not update for a while as I am planning to take a few weeks off the forum to complete my essay and help my gran before the litters old enough to need handling.

They are far from safe she could still kill them or reject them but she's done well so far.


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## Guest

Aww bless them, she does look so much better. The hoglets must be letting her sleep now :lol:


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## Guest

B3rnie said:


> Aww bless them, she does look so much better. The hoglets must be letting her sleep now :lol:


She's took to coming out at night for an our sleep outside the nest. :lol:
Sounds like a nest of birds when she leaves honestly.


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## DKDREAM

aww they are looking great when will you know what colours you have? how old are they when they wean?


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> aww they are looking great when will you know what colours you have? how old are they when they wean?


Looks like 1 brown and the rest chocolate/grey pinto's but wont be sure till 3 weeks.

Around 5 weeks they are weaned.


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## DKDREAM

shetlandlover said:


> Looks like 1 brown and the rest chocolate/grey pinto's but wont be sure till 3 weeks.
> 
> Around 5 weeks they are weaned.


what colour is Poppy classed as? sorry for all the questions.


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> what colour is Poppy classed as? sorry for all the questions.


She's "brown" not chocolate..brown. Many say chocolate is brown but its not. Theo's a chocolate pinto. We believe this litters taken its colour from the dads family, the dad was albino but had many gens of chocolates so we believe that its a throw back as pinto's (chocolates as well) are usually the stronger genes.


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## Guest

The babies are not out of the woods yet as they can still be rejected or hurt by mum.

But here are the babies today;

*Please note; there is a care guide here http://www.petforums.co.uk/small-animal-chat/189908-keeping-hedgehogs-pets.html*

Hazel. (girl)

































Autumn (girl).

























Breeze. (girl).

























Pumpkin (boy).

























Oreo (boy). (he didnt want to come out).


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## Guest

Awww bless them, Poppy is doing a great job


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## DKDREAM

What beautiful babies, I really like Hazel, are you keeping her?


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## LostGirl

Aww wow she's doing really well  

Very cute babies


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## manic rose

aw what lovely catci....sorry hedgehogs :lol: glad they are all doing well


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## Guest

Thursday night Poppy rejected the litter. I have been hand rearing them since.
They are 3 weeks old today and the survival rate is very very low. 
Feeding every 2 hours and watching for bloat.

Please keep the babies in your thoughts because for the next few weeks its going to be hard. I am hoping they are healthy enough to survive hand rearing.


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## mstori

aww no 

keeping fingers and paws crossed for them x


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## Nico0laGouldsmith

got everything crossed  poor things 

good luck! and it's great that you haven't given up!


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## DKDREAM

awwww no, I hope they all make it. when would they naturally start to wean? is Poppy ok?


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## Lil Miss

aww no! sending loads of good luck vibes your way, come on little hedgies keep strong

hope poppy is ok too


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## Guest

DKDREAM said:


> awwww no, I hope they all make it. when would they naturally start to wean? is Poppy ok?


5 weeks.

Poppy's great enjoying having her wheel and space. I think the babies now being old enough to chase her around to feed was to much for her.

Weighed the babies today and they weigh in at;

Hazel - 60g.
Autumn - 52g.
Breeze - 60g.
Pumpkin - 52g
Oreo - 52g.


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## Guest

New pictures and update.
http://www.petforums.co.uk/small-animal-chat/193404-omg.html


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