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| Name: |
Fitz
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Age: |
Three months old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
African Pygmy Hedgehog
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| Home: |
Silverdale, Washington, USA
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Introducing
"Fitz Von Wolf." Fitz is an African Pygmy Hedgehog. His color is
considered black. Unlike the European hedgehog for example, they do not
hibernate during the winter. Hedgehogs live a solitary life. In captivity,
some females will get along in a group of two or three; males are not known
to get along and will fight and injure each other.
What makes Fitz (and Little Chief White Cloud) special is they do live
together and get along well. This is rarely seen in captivity, but never in
the wild. Those two like to play and even swim together. They both like the
same toy, and often play tug-of-war with it.
Hedgehogs are spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae, which is in order
Erinaceomorpha. Some people confuse hedgehogs with rodents. However,
hedgehogs do not have continuous growing teeth, and when they wear down or
break, they will not grow back. They also do not chew or gnaw on things.
When hedgehogs smell something they like a lot, they get excited and lick it.
After a few minutes they make a foam in their mouth. That foam is then put
onto the spines with their quite long tongue. This is called anointing. It is
normal behavior for a hedgehog. Fitz eats high quality cat food, which is
high in protein and low in fat. He lives to hunt for crickets as a treat or
mealworms. He just discovered strawberries and he loves watermelon.
Hedgehogs are nocturnal, but will play during the day if woken up. Hedgehogs
do not see well during the day, and bright sunlight will hurt their eyes.
When they are scared, they curl into a tight ball for protection, which makes
him very undesirable to predators as the spines will poke straight up. A
happy hedgehog will lay his spines down. His belly is furry and soft.
The African Pygmy comes in many colors and they make great pets. In the wild,
hedgehogs will eat primarily insects, and small mammals, like baby mice. But
hedgehogs also have a sweet tooth and will eat berries when they find them.
In captivity, they need a high quality cat food, some fruits and vegetables,
as well as crickets and meal worms.
View more images of Fitz!
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Talk about today's pet in Pet Talk!
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