Rescued hoglet freaky behavior??

[Sangria1269]

Hi,
I am new to this hedgehog stuff. About two weeks ago I rescued an autumn orphen baby since here in the Netherlands the wild animal vets told me to leave him there, covered in fly eggs. I took him home and seems to be doing very well. I have a few questions that I cannot directly find the answers to, so if you know the answers, please help me! I am very concerned.
1) He gets still and his body convulses. Is this a seizure? He doesnt make a sound so I don't know if he's in pain.
2) He is teething (U I think hes about 4-5 weeks old) but his appetite seems to be only on the goat's milk. I have been trying to introduce other foods, such as pecans, which he loves, bananas, cat food which he isn't keen on, cat treats, wet cat food, all which he does not like. Any recommendations?
3) His poop. Seems to range from bright green, wet and even clear liquid to dark brown solid. What is the normal? Most of the time its pretty liquidy and soft.
4) Sometimes he huffs or blows from his nose and jumps with his forehead quills a bit up. What does this mean? Is this normal?

[Vincent]

1. Does he usually go to sleep afterwards? My hedgehogs twitch like that when they're relaxing before a nap. It's not usually violent; just a few muscle spasms along their back. They also twitch a little when they sleep, like they're dreaming.

2. Can you take pictures so we can see how old he is? Hedgehogs only need milk up to a certain point, because they're lactose-intolerant, and the milk may make him more sick than he already is. Make sure that everything you feed him is very small or easy to swallow, as things like pecans and nuts and raisins are VERY easy to choke on, no matter how much he likes the taste. I've never had a baby hedgehog, so I don't know what they eat, but I'd try buying a high quality cat food (like the ones here http://www.chins-n-quills.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93744 ) and softening it up with some water. I don't know how many you'll be able to buy, as you live in the Netherlands and all.

3. His poop is changing because you're not giving him a steady diet. Every new food or change of diet will upset his stomach and give him green, liquid-y poop. The normal is a solid brown that dries to black.

4. It means that he's trying to defend himself. My hedgehogs do it when they're surprised, and it's a way of trying to tell you "leave me alone". :p

[Nancy]

Contact Tiggywinkles (http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/) They can give you the best advice on how to care for him.
Goats milk is fine to give him and you can also give him canned kitten food or dampened cat food if he is able to eat it.
His poop will be loose as he is adjusting to different food than he was getting from mom. You can also try syringing him water as the loose poops will dehydrate him.

Good luck. :)

[wyvernrider18]

Why don't you go to the vet and get some Prescription Diet a/d? It's supposed to be really gentle on stomachs and highly palatable. Perhaps they don't sell this where you're from, but I've had some suggestions with this when i was having trouble getting my hedgie to eat after surgery. You might try mixing it with the goat's milk. If you have to, you might have to syringe feed him.

[Sangria1269]

Thanks guys, its so hard to find good information on wild hedgehogs. He is about 5 weeks now, he seems to be doing better. I have been letting him go outside our protected garden at night, and in the morning hes at our doorstep in the box curled up in my sweater. I have been doing this for about a week and I notice that he eats dirt, which causes his poo to be like tar...black and gooey. I don't know why he does this, I have been told he is getting some nutrients out of it and thats why he eats it. How do I post a picture?

[LunaMidnight]

Sorry, I can't help you with the poo question (I know nothing at all about the European hogs) but I can help with posting a picture!

I don't know if you've already done this or not but you can host the picture on a site like TinyPic.com or PhotoBucket.com (but for Photo Bucket you need to create an account first). And on here where you type your replies, if you look up you'll see a little yellow box with a mountain on it and you click on it and put in the link for your picture (the sites I mentioned automatically give you one) into the box and hit enter and there it is! :)