Allie
09-25-2006, 08:05 PM
I'm glad I found this forum, because up until I did, I was convinced that Saskatchewan was a giant hedgehog void! All of the sites I looked at had listings for hedgehog owners and breeders in all of the other prairie provinces, but there wasn't a single listing for SK. With winter coming on, I'm not so inclined to try shipping a hedgehog into our province of snow and ice (ok, ok, so it's not that bad... yet!), and would rather go and pick up my new little cutie, especially since that means I can see how well socialized they are before I bring them home.
After a solid month of searching and months and months of research, I finally managed to find a few listings for hedgehogs in Saskatchewan. The first was a real disaster! It took her forever to reply to me, and then when she did, it was a solid barrage of questions to try and see how much I knew about hedgehogs. I understanding wanting to make sure your hogs going to a responsible owner, but it's a little hard to take someone seriously when they're emailing you with 'wh4t u know about ano1nting? cn u spen time to make them not bte?'. After playing along as best as I could, (there were some sentences that I just couldn't decipher!) it turned out that someone had already bought her hog, if indeed she had ever had one and wasn't just stringing me along.
There were several other leads that just didn't pan out, until I finally found an adult hog who needed a new home. I talked with the owner, got lots and lots of pictures (he was a real cutie on camera!), and was reasonably assured that the owner had socialized him well. He came with his cage and most supplies, but I made sure to stock up on fleece, worms, and a few other things he didn't have. All that was left was to go down and meet him... I anxiously browsed the forums, making sure I'd have everything ready for him to come home.
Then, this weekend, I finally got to meet him. I was, sadly, disappointed. As soon as we entered the room, he turned into a hissing, popping ball of quills! He stayed that way almost the whole time I was there, and would pop any time we moved. The owner was a little embarassed, and said he wasn't usually like this. I stayed, hoping he would calm down a little, but no amount of coaxing was going to calm him down. Finally, I tried stroking his quills to get him to relax and unball. After a while, he did, but it was only to whirl on me and grab my finger in his little teeth! I didn't think they could move that fast, but before I knew it, he'd chomped down on my pinkie and had rolled back into a ball, leaving me to try to figure out how to get my finger both out of his mouth and out of the ball of quills without hurting him or me!
Needless to say, I didn't bring him home with me. And so, my search continues. I'm going to start looking for breeders in neighboring provinces, and hopefully I'll have more luck there. Anyway, that's my story. Sorry for the super long post!! Did anyone else have this much trouble finding a hedgie, or is it just a SK thing?
After a solid month of searching and months and months of research, I finally managed to find a few listings for hedgehogs in Saskatchewan. The first was a real disaster! It took her forever to reply to me, and then when she did, it was a solid barrage of questions to try and see how much I knew about hedgehogs. I understanding wanting to make sure your hogs going to a responsible owner, but it's a little hard to take someone seriously when they're emailing you with 'wh4t u know about ano1nting? cn u spen time to make them not bte?'. After playing along as best as I could, (there were some sentences that I just couldn't decipher!) it turned out that someone had already bought her hog, if indeed she had ever had one and wasn't just stringing me along.
There were several other leads that just didn't pan out, until I finally found an adult hog who needed a new home. I talked with the owner, got lots and lots of pictures (he was a real cutie on camera!), and was reasonably assured that the owner had socialized him well. He came with his cage and most supplies, but I made sure to stock up on fleece, worms, and a few other things he didn't have. All that was left was to go down and meet him... I anxiously browsed the forums, making sure I'd have everything ready for him to come home.
Then, this weekend, I finally got to meet him. I was, sadly, disappointed. As soon as we entered the room, he turned into a hissing, popping ball of quills! He stayed that way almost the whole time I was there, and would pop any time we moved. The owner was a little embarassed, and said he wasn't usually like this. I stayed, hoping he would calm down a little, but no amount of coaxing was going to calm him down. Finally, I tried stroking his quills to get him to relax and unball. After a while, he did, but it was only to whirl on me and grab my finger in his little teeth! I didn't think they could move that fast, but before I knew it, he'd chomped down on my pinkie and had rolled back into a ball, leaving me to try to figure out how to get my finger both out of his mouth and out of the ball of quills without hurting him or me!
Needless to say, I didn't bring him home with me. And so, my search continues. I'm going to start looking for breeders in neighboring provinces, and hopefully I'll have more luck there. Anyway, that's my story. Sorry for the super long post!! Did anyone else have this much trouble finding a hedgie, or is it just a SK thing?