Pinto spots?

[Janine]

Is it possible for a hedgehog to 'develope' pinto spots? Or are they always born with them? :confused:

I ask because my hedgehog, Macy, has been getting more and more white quills all over, and some seem to be forming a spot on her side. Is it just a coincident maybe that all the white ones came out in the same spot? Will they eventually even out?

I think her mother was a chocolate chip and her father an albino.

Thanks :)

[kaiteedyd]

Pinto spots are something one is born with. Just like a paint horse will be a paint horse at birth or a parti-colored dog will be a parti-colored dog at birth.

However if your hedgehog had a small spot when it was a baby you may not have noticed until she grew and the spot grew with her.

If she's getting more and more white quills she could either be graying or she could be roaning.

How old is Macy?

[PrettyHate]

What does "roaning" mean?

[Ododad]

Pinto is a colour pattern, rather than a colour and as such may appear on any coloured hedgehog. The Pinto pattern can be distinguished by a total lack of colour on the quills and skin beneath in distinct patches or spots over the hedgehog's back. Ideally, the white patches are to be symmetrical between one side of the hedgehog, divided down the length of the body by the dorsal, and the other. The remainder of the quills - those with coloured banding - remain consistent with the hedgehog's basic colouration. (From Hedgehog Central)

What does "graying" mean?

[kaiteedyd]

As animals age, just like people they gray. Some gray more than others, some never gray and some gray alot. In dogs this can be seen by white hairs coming in on the muzzle as they get older and white hairs being dispersed throughout the body.

In hedgeshogs graying can be new whites quills replacing old colored quills.

Roaning and snowflake mean the same thing. I should have said snowflake instead of roaning. You'll have to excuse me, I am a horse person and roan came to my mind first.

In hedgehogs it is my understanding that snowflakes become snowflakes after their final quilling stage at around six months.

Thats why I was asking for the age of the hedgehog. It could be a young hedgehog ending its quilling stage or an older hedgehog becoming gray.

[Janine]

She's about four months old.

Thank you for the replies :)

[Lauren]

I have a bunch of five weeks olds that have been snowflakes since a few weeks old. One of the five week olds just starting snowflaking a few days ago. They dont have to get their white quills at six months, some get white quills as they grow older but, not all. You can have a chocolate hedgehog and it stay chocolate until he quills and you can just wake up to a chocolate chip hedgie (chocolate snowflake). You can have a hedgehog thats a snowflake since before quilling, stay a snowflakeor, you can have a snowflake then after quilling turn into a "solid color".

Greying in hedgehogs doesn't have to mean that they become snowflake. As hedgehogs grow up, they will become a few shades lighter most of the time. They could go from a chocolate to a brown, a grey to a chocolate. But greying doesn't mean to get white quills as in hairs for other animals.

With pinto spots, yes a hedgehog baby is born with them, your hedgie is probably a snowflake. If you could get us some pictures that would be nice!

[Janine]

So her colouring will even out? Just curious, she'll be a cutie no matter how she turns out :D .

I'll post some pictures when my bf visits with his camera, I don't have one of my own.

Thanks again :)

[kaiteedyd]

Lauren,

I had wrote this whole long thing to disagree with you with and than I re-read what you had written and found that I actually agree with you. I think we just misinteturpreted what each other meant.

What I may not have been clear about is that a snowflake should be a snowflake by the time it gets its adult set of quills (which I understand to be at around six months.) If a hedgehog starts to look like a snowflake afterwards, then the whitening of the quills is probably caused by something else.

I think that something else is probably just age-related graying. Though it could be progressive roaning if snowflaking in hedgehogs is progressive, which I didn't think it was.