Poggles Likes Baths

Poggles always perks up at the sound of running water.  We weren't sure if it terrified him or whether he liked it, but it became very clear today that Poggles LOVES it.  (What a weirdo.)

I washed the sink, turned on the water to a nice, warm temperature, and Poggles started to fiddle like crazy in his carrying pouch.  I lifted him up to the edge of the sink and he dived into it immediately.  Then he just sat with his back under the running tap... and didn't move.

He REALLY liked the shower.  I could scoop water and pour it over him, even over his face, and he didn't budge an inch.

 I had to move him aside so that I could plug the sink.  Then I added a little Aveeno body wash to the water to make his mini bubble bath.  I took a soft, clean toothbrush and brushed his back, feet, and belly.  He didn't like his head and face brushed much, but I did it anyways.  I was just extra gentle, so he resumed his statue pose.

After a nice little soak, I drained the water, rinsed him under the tap (much to his content), filled up the tub again, and rinsed all the body wash away.

He hated being dried with a towel last time, so I experimented with a blow dryer.  I put it on a low power, warm setting.

He was a little surprised by the air at first, but then he just hunched over and let me dry him.  I kept my hand in front of the blow dryer to make sure that the temperature never got too hot, and I always kept the blow dryer moving.  Once in a while, I'd brush the quills to make sure they separated and got properly dried.  Towards the end, I pushed him over to his side so that I dry under him too.

His nose got a little dry and I was worried about him getting dehydrated so I gave him a tiny spoon of yogurt.  I vaguely remember that hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, but Poggles eats yogurt readily in tiny quantities without any problems.  You can see how little I gave him in the picture.

After all that excitement, I wrapped him loosely in one of his fleece liners and placed him under my desk lamp where it's warm.  I gave him a couple "cookies" (round cat kibbles), and he settled down for a nap.  This ensures that he will dry thoroughly at a warm temperature.

Bath time with hedgies is fun  :)

The Take-Out Window

Poggles gets hand-fed every day.  Yesterday he discovered "the take-out window".

The side of his cage has a sliding door and I opened it for business.  If he comes to the take out window and clambers up, he can take a piece of food to go!

He usually eats the small pieces right there in front of me (with great relish!), but he takes the bigger pieces of food to-go.  They are too scary to eat at the take out window so he takes them under his wheel to eat in secret.

Silly Poggles!

My Study Buddy

 Here's a picture of my little study buddy.  He usually sleeps with his bum to me so that I can't see him, but he made an exception on this day.  I think he looks so cute with those pink little legs to the side.

He woke up after a few clicks, but he just settled back down and snoozed away.  My sweetie says that I have been less stressed out this term and he attributes it to Poggles.  I guess it's hard to frown TOO much when I look up from the books and see this serene little sleeper.

Have a nice day  :)

"Poggle-Poggle!"

Happy Thanksgiving!  It was a very good day today.  I got some homework done and then I spent some quality time with good ol' Poggles.  

He's usually very, very grumpy when I clean his house, but he was in a surprisingly accommodating mood today.  It was time to grab the camera!!!

He started off as his usual, skittish self except that he didn't turn his back to me.  He was watching me.  I think he wanted food.  This is the fortunate side effect of hand-feeding your hedgehog.  When he wants food, he'll pay attention to you! 

I led him on a path to his pouch and hid a piece of food inside.  He usually doesn't want to go into a new, clean pouch, but I've mastered the trick of rubbing his old pouch against the outside and opening of his new pouch.  He sniffs the pouch opening very carefully, and then he walks inside.  

I make it extra easy for him to know that there's a piece of food inside by dragging the food in a path along the floor into his house.  I'm pretty sure it leaves a scent trail for him.  He has a very good sense of smell.

Well, once Poggles got inside of his pouch and ate his snack.  He just sat at the entrance.  It was a perfect photo op.  

He has never liked the camera much so I was very surprised at how he just put up with me.  The camera was right in his face and he didn't seem to care.  Very odd...  Hey, but I'm not complaining!  I am very thankful.

I hope you had lots of turkey, stuffing, and other good things with your family and friends today.

Cheers  :)

We Hate Homework

I don't know how it happened, but it's already time for the first round of exams.  I am feeling grumpy about so much homework and studying, and Poggles is grumpy about it too.  Well, he's mostly grumpy because he's my homework buddy.

He's forced to sit in his pouch sleeping and sniffing the air while I toil away.  He even has to tolerate getting fed intermittently.  Poor guy... What a hard life.

Meanwhile, I'm looking up drug names like Dimenhydrinate, Ipratropium, and Saccharomyces Boulardii.  Who comes up with these?!?

Okay, back to the grind.  Nose to the wheel, nose to the wheel...

Have a good weekend  :)

Pogglebee Growing Up

Little by little, Poggles is growing up.  He's getting bigger, fatter, and a little more used to his new life with my family.  He's also developed some nice habits that make my life a little easier.  

First of all, he doesn't randomly poop anymore.  It used to be that he'd poop all over you if you tried to handle him.  He just couldn't control himself.  Now, you can play with him and you'll stay clean (Phewf!).

Secondly, he only poops on his wheel and inside of his litterbox.  What a champ!  The rest of his house stays poop free.  Well... almost.  He has the unfortunate habit of dragging his dirty paper towel into his house.  I think he uses it like a blanket to curl into, and as a plug for the door of his pouch.  

Each morning I have to steal his dirty blanket away from him.  Ewww.... 

I found a solution though.  (Owning Pogglebee is all about problem solving.)  I got rid of his corner litterbox and put the big, rectangular litterbox directly under the wheel.  Now the litterbox catches all of the moisture and poop, and the paper towel is just a floor towel for when he climbs out of the box.  The paper towel stays pretty clean, and I don't mind as much that he hugs it at night.  

Another big plus lately is that he has become more friendly.  Guess how?  I switched from letting him free-feed to hand-feeding most of his meals.  I still leave him a snack out during the day, but he has to wait for me to get the bulk of his food.  Yes, it takes more time to feed him one piece at a time, but he knows I'm nice now.

I've upgraded from scary cleaning lady to food lady.

I can lure him out of his house with a piece of food, and after that, I can pet his forehead or gently scratch or rub his chin while he's eating.  I find it really nice that I can touch him without him freaking out now.  I had to start with just touching his nose, then it moved to chin rub, and now it's small forehead strokes.  He's still against being touched on his back, but I'm working on it  :)

Oh, and just now, I used my stethoscope to listen to his heart through his fleece pouch.  His heart beats so fast!  My classmates in the Maternity ward have been telling me about how baby hearts beat super fast too.  Maybe I can practice counting Pogglebee's heart so that I'll be more prepared to count super fast baby hearts?

 Have a great day!

Hedgehog Socializing Pouch

Frustrated with how skittish Pogglebee still is, I devised to make a "socializing pouch" to help him adjust to his new home and family.

Ta da! In one busy evening, I came up with what looks like a cute, fleece purse!

The strap is long enough and wide enough to sit comfortably as a cross-body purse as I sit at my desk or walk around the house.

The base is three layers of fleece, and the sides are two layers of fleece. The strap and side decorations are made with a cute cotton fabric.

The pouch is actually quite large. You can see how small Pogglebee looks comparative to the purse size. I designed it to allow for him to grow bigger later on, and so that he would have space to walk around a little and move if he wanted to.

It's washable, but I always put one layer of paper towel in with him. He seems to like the paper towel and it's useful in case there's moisture.

I had him on my lap while I was reading today and he lay spread-eagled in the pouch. I think it was hot for him since I let half of the pouch lay closed so that he could have some privacy. He was fairly quiet in the pouch, but every time I moved, turned a page, sighed, spoke, or coughed, he would huff at me. He also huffed when I lifted my hand to brush my hair out of my face and a shadow fell over him. He is such a scaredy cat!

After he hung out with me, he did some socializing with my sister. When I went to check on him tonight in his cage, he didn't freak out like usual. Instead, he just kept cleaning his feet while lying sideways under his wheel. I felt that was a big improvement.

Fingers crossed that more socialization will eventually make Pogglebee a calmer boy.

Have a great day!
___________________________________
UPDATE 07/11/2012

I have designed a different (easier to sew) carrying pouch that you can use to carry your hedgehog around.  You can find the free tutorial here.

The Oven Protector

After watching me slave over cleaning Pogglebee's cage every day, my mother suggested that I put something that can be wiped under his wheel and litter box.

So when I spotted this oven protector at Walmart for only about $2 for two, I put it into my cart and took it home.

It fit perfectly over about 2/3 of the cage floor on top of the fleece liner. I thought it was a bit too big at first, but you can see how it's actually a good length for the wheel. It's easy to wipe down, and I can even clean the wheel in his cage now since I can let soap and water drip down onto the oven protector without any problems.

And what is that spiky grey blob behind the litter box?

Why, that's Pogglebee, of course! He decided that it was a good place to take a nap today.
He doesn't seem to mind the oven protector one bit.
It means he can poop wherever he pleases for 2/3 of the cage!

The paper towel can soak up any moisture, but Pogglebee prefers to use it as a blanket most of the time. He hides under the wheel and pulls the paper towel all around him, or goes under it. He can go into his dome and pouch, but he seems to like it under the wheel more.

Now, if you don't mind, he'd like to go back to his nap now.

Have a great day :)

New Baby Hedgehogs At Happy Hedgies

My hedgehog baby stalking days are not over yet. TWO new litters have been born at Happy Hedgies and there's one more litter due any day!

Stephanie says that it's okay for me to show you the pictures, so here they are at just over one week old :)

These little hoglets were born on August 3rd so they are only 9 days old! They are the kids of Grizzly and Halo. You can see how the baby on the right seems to have really taken up mum's colouring, maybe even more so. He looks cool :)

These seven little hoglets were born on August 1st! So they are about 11 days old now. Check out the variation in colours and patterns. I'm loving the white stripe down the backs of the left three. Oh, and one of them looks almost white on the right.

They are the kids of Pinball and Orion, so they are half brothers and sister to Pogglebee! Pinball is also Pogglebee's dad.

I can't wait to see how all these new little hoglets will turn out. I'll keep you posted for when more new pictures show up!

Meanwhile, Pogglebee decided to annoint with purple sweet potato yesterday. You can still see remnants of it on his head today. I couldn't stop laughing when he first did it because he basically had a purple blob of sweet potato right on his head like a hat.

What a funny fellow!

Sewing Sleeping Sacks and Fleece Cage Liners

This weekend has been a frenzy of sewing activity. Since I don't want to be doing laundry and spot cleaning Pogglebee's cage every day, I decided to make him some more back-up cage liners and pouches.

I had a lot of left over green and blue fleece from making the initial sleeping pouches and liners so I sewed strips of them together to make these two striped sleeping sacks. I think they turned out pretty cute.
Pogglebee didn't seem to like the plain blue fleece pouch as much as his awesome brown corduroy and green one, so I spiffed up his plain blue pouch with an extra exterior of the brown corduroy. I think it looks much better now.

And because I discovered some scraps of red and white fabric in my stash, I sewed them together to make this candy striped, Christmas-y pouch. Since he'll be using this in Winter, it has three layers of fleece for extra warmth.
I also made some more fleece cage liners. I got pretty good at making rounded corners after a while.

I used the original blue fleece cage liner as a template and made them slightly bigger since the blue one was slightly too small. I also gave them a thicker border design.

Whew, after four of them I was pretty tired of making them. He has six fleece liners in total now and five sleeping pouches.

Ironically, his favourite place to sleep now is not in his sleeping sacks, but under the wheel. He loves that wheel very much. I think he feels safe there.

He has been very skittish lately so I've been trying to earn his trust by always giving him something to eat if I wake him up. I want him to associate these disturbances with positive things. He balls up, hisses, and shakes when I first wake him up, but once he senses the food, his guard starts to go down. If I move very slowly, I can take a piece of food and put it in front of him without him flinching. I even fed him a piece of apple today from my hand.

Sigh, baby steps, baby steps. Maybe he'll eventually welcome my presence instead of acting like I'm the scariest giant ever.

Have a great day!
__________________________________________
UPDATE 07/04/2012 - I made a free sewing tutorial for the fleece pouches!  You can find it here.