The Snuggle and Run

The new Tiggy thing is cuddling. Last night, I sat on my bed, reading my book, with a curled up hedgie in my arm. I say curled up, and not balled up; there is a difference. Curled up implies no pain, since her spines are down. She sometimes just snuggles in the palm of my hand, and under the breast, or all the way in the crook of the elbow. When she snuggles, she tries as hard as she can to get so far into it, which is just too cute. At one point she was just sitting on my chest, looking at the book with me. I wish I had someone there to snap a photo of that!

She has moments of that adorable snuggles, and then moments of constant motion. She just can't sit still, it's go, go, go! This is fun too, if not a tad hard to keep up with. She can book it! She almost walked off the edge of the bed today, she's pretty speedy. Luckily I caught her in time. I think tomorrow I'm going to get those spiffy pet cage things, that you can set up in your living room of wherever and it blocks in some space where they can roam free.

I went toy shopping today. She's been avidly running on her wheel at night, so I thought maybe some toys would be fun. I bought a ball and a matchbox car! It's seems strange, but some folks mentioned that their prickly friends like to roll them around. I thought I'd give it a shot. Especially since I found a Shelby Mustang GT500! If I can't have one, by golly, Tiggy will.

I've been trying to find a suitable carry-cage, one that's more portable than her main one. Something I can take her to work in. Since I'm an assistant preschool teacher, I want to take her in and show my kids! They know I was getting her, and one little girl in particular has been very excited about it. I'm going to have a dry run in a few days, see how Tig does with my niece and nephews before bringing her around a bunch of four year olds. The kids at school would be fine with her, I just need to know how she'd be with them. Not that I'd let them hold her, just mainly for noise factor.
Anyway, I found a handy plastic bucket thing my mom had, however I don't think it will work, since Tiggy can reach the top when there's nothing in it.

Also, I'm finding it to be less than easy to snap a decent pic of the darling creature. She's often flighty with the lens comes near her, or she's curled up so much you can't she much. Hehe, she's camera shy I guess. I tried to tell her she's very photogenic and doesn't need to worry about taking a bad shot, but I don't think she understood me. So I'm going to keep trying to snap them when she's occupied doing something. Like eating, for instance...
Gah!! I love this little thing!

Melon Perfume

So my friend Savannah was just over, and I had Tiggy out. Tiggy was in a snuggly mood all night and she kept squirming her way into the crooks of our elbows. Which Savannah wasn't quite used to, so there were a lot of "Ow!'s" and "Oh!'s". Today wasn't quite as hot as yesterday, and tonight there was a cool breeze and we had windows open downstairs, so that may be a reason why she was so cuddly.
We looked around for a bit for some sort of toy for her to play with, and when we couldn't find anything suitable, we ventured into the kitchen. I told her what happened with the cheese and so we went looking maybe for some fruit. We found some cantaloupe and decided to give it a shot. We placed a little bit on a spoon, and Tiggy went straight for it! She sniffed it and licked it like crazy!
And then she twisted funny, and we were confused until that long tongue darted out and started lathering her spines up with cantaloupe foam!
I guess she really liked the stuff, enough to want to smell like that. Anointing is so funny. Also it's a tad icky when she's covered in melon foam perfume and I have to pick her up and it gets everywhere... But watching her do it is priceless!
God made nature so interesting!
I'm finding having a hedgehog to be very interesting and just all around cool!
I love that I can tell when she's feeling a little nervous or peeved when her spines perk up off her back. I love the way she can move them in different directions. I just find her so fascinating... So much so, I started this blog!

Bonding and Cheese

As I am typing this one handed, Tiggy the Great is snuggled up nice and warm in the palm of my hand. And even though this impedes my movement, I don't care. This is too adorable for words.

I'm getting used to her quills, and they don't hurt anymore. It's really more the anticipation of pain that gets to you. When asked, I say that they're like toothpicks made of fingernails. Which sounds weird, but since the spines are made of keratin, the same stuff as fingernails and hair, it makes sense.
The breeder I got her from told me that it was important to handle her, even when she doesn't want to be held. Otherwise she'll manipulate me and act up and be all emo and antisocial.

Tiggy is now fast asleep in my hand. I wonder if she's dreaming...

The best food for them is high in protein and low in carbs. So I tried to feed her a piece of cheese. Her reaction was quite amusing. She just smelled it, rubbed her nose on it, and her quills bristled. Maybe we'll try that again whe she gets a bit older. HeHe.

The Beginning

It all started with a picture. When I saw this first picture of her, I instantly fell in love and set about getting her. Then I was shown other photos of her as she got older.
(In the second photo, she's the one on the left.)

I saw her unusual coloring and mask on her face, and was sure I'd made the right choice.
When it was finally time for her to come home with me, I was ecstatic.
Me and Savvy went to Mass. and got to the breeder's house. When she placed the adorable animal in my hands I was so happy I almost didn't notice the prickles. Almost.

She is quite prickly. When her spines are up, or extended, she feels kinda like toothpicks. When they're more flat on her body, her top feels like a hairbrush. She's getting used to me holding her, as am I, and she can get quite active her our hands.

On the 2 and 1/2 hour drive home, she was in her basket I brought and she began doing this thing called, anointing. It's rather cool/amusing. She finds a smell she's surrounded with, and then gets the taste of it in her mouth by licking it. She then works up this foam in her mouth and uses her long tongue to coat herself in it. Okay, it sounds gross, but it's amusing how flexible they are; almost cat-like.

Another thing she does when she's freaked is "popping". This is where she extends her spines and jerks upward, like a twitch. It's designed to startle and cause pain to whatever is "attacking" it. And it serves this purpose quite well. She's only just beginning to not pop at me all the time when I try to pick her up.

I have her in a cage with a wheel and an igloo for her to hide in. She likes her wheel a lot and ran in it all night. They like to hide in toilet paper tubes, so I snatched a big one from work and put it in there. She's also been munching on the food I have for her. It's adorable when she crunches, because the spines on the top of her face move down with each bite.

I've been taking her out, and holding her, so has my mom. It's important to socialize them, get them used to being handled, so they'll be nice. Not a problem. I love holding her. She's very cute and fun to hold. She's sweet, still timid, but we'll be working on it.