Update on my new hedgie

[LoriL]

We've had Lucy for 4 days now and things are going well. She has not gone on a hunger strike like poor little Mikey did when he was here. She has learned to drink her water from a water bowl instead of a water bottle and seems to have adjusted from the corn cob bedding to liners okay.

She does seem a bit lonely since she shared a living space with her sister before, but that could just be me. She naturally seems to understand where to go to sleep (the digging box or the hedgiebag), poor Mikey would just go to a corner and curl up and shake and I would put him where he could hide the entire 3 weeks he was here.

Once in her digging box, she will leave to go to the bathroom, so I don't have the issues I did with Mikey that he wouldn't leave it and I was always trying to find a way to clean it. So I've been able to use kleenex boxes and fleece strips.

Best of all, she has not bitten me! Mikey started to bite me at day 2. Lucy unballs almost immediately (for me) and relaxes her quills.

What amazes me the most, is that she definately seems to have a preference to a certain person in the house - ME! :hearts:
I guess I should feel bad that she's not cuddly with the rest of the family yet, but right now I'm kind of enjoying it. The other night, my husband took her out of her cage when she was awake and had her on his lap. She was doing fine just crawling around and digging around the blanket he had her on. I sat down, she stopped moving around and her nose started twitching, then she turned around and walked right over to me, crawled up me and fell asleep on my chest!

Of course, he was offended that she left him and accused me of gloating. Imagine, me, gloating! Well, maybe a little. :)

Anyway, things seem to be going very well. I just thought I would let everyone know!

Lori

[Tsukiko]

That's great! I'm glad you're enjoying Lucy and she's enjoying you too.

[razzle]

Awww!!! Sounds like things are going great!! And that's ok to gloat. I enjoy being my hedgie's favorite too. :winkgrin: Post some pictures when you can!

ps - what do you make a digging box out of ?

[LoriL]

I still am waiting to borrow that digital camera...my neighbors just don't understand the need to photograph the baby. :)

I made the digging box out of an empty kleenex box (actually an empty "Puffs" brand tissue box), and I cut strips of fleece an inch wide and 3 1/2" long. There is enough of them for a couple of handfuls and I put them in the box and turn it upside down. The fleece does not completely fill the box, but you can see it from the opening. She goes right on in there and digs her way through the fleece. She seems to like to dig on the cardboard of the box too. By the time she's finished, all you see from the opening of the box is fleece sticking out, no hedgehog.

I decided this morning to check on her to see if she had had an accident in the box, so I managed to get her out of it, and she was completely covered in strips of fleece! So cute!

The only drawback of it is that the box isn't real durable. I've tried plastic (like rubbermaid), but neither Mikey nor Lucy liked it even with it covered with a dark fabric. And there is only so much tissue our house can go through!

My daughter is on a mission to snarf the empty tissue boxes at her school - after asking the teachers, of course.

Lori

[incrovaj]

I am so glad that things seem to be going better with Lucy. :hyper: I know it was a tough decision, and she seems to be telling you you made the right one. :)

[groovychic]

My crew loves tissue boxes too! Herbie and Kahlua both sleep in theirs. I work at a school and like to snatch an empty kleenex box whenever I can too :laugh: Glad to hear that Lucy is doing well and is getting more comfortable in her new home :)

[hemi_mygirl]

LOL. Hemi used to like tissue boxes... until she got a tad too big. Now, when she crawls inside, the box moves whenever she does. She really does look like a turtle....