Treacle

While we are waiting for our hedgie babies to get a bit bigger (and hopefully allow us to get some better pics) we thought you might like to see how our younger female Treacle has grown since we got her from Maciek

Super little animal, she looks superb and great pics as normal John...

Lovely John. What age would she be?

Big Dogg wrote:Lovely John. What age would she be?

Hi Chris
She was born on 17 May 2010 so is roughly 15 weeks old. She was really well handled by Maciek and is so relaxed and confident. We are hoping for a dark coloured boy out of our litter ( we did catch a glimpse of one dark baby on its back and it looked female) to eventually pair with her as they would be totally unrelated.
Can't believe the rate at which the babies grow, will try and get some better pics later in the week when they are two weeks old.
How are your two doing, when do you intend to try breeding them?
Cheers John

She is looking great. Is she friendly/timid?

My little male isn't as tame as the female yet. He will still ball up when you first reach in to lift him, but once you've actually lifted him, he's grand. So we try to get him out for a while every day to get used to being lifted. The female is puppy dog tame - she doesn't ball up at all when you lift her. She never stops running back and forward in her cage when the lights go out at night lol. She doesn't like wheels though (according to previous owner - we haven't tried her with a wheel yet). Anywho, the female is over a year old and has bred already. She had a litter about 5 months or so ago. I would ideally like to breed them in a month or so, but I don't know if the male would be old enough. He's about 8 weeks old now and I read they are sexually mature at around this stage, but obviously that's not to say they should be breeding at this age. What age should a male be before he could be introduced to a female?

snakeboyadam2k8 wrote:

Big Dogg wrote:Lovely John. What age would she be?

Hi Chris
She was born on 17 May 2010 so is roughly 15 weeks old. She was really well handled by Maciek and is so relaxed and confident. We are hoping for a dark coloured boy out of our litter ( we did catch a glimpse of one dark baby on its back and it looked female) to eventually pair with her as they would be totally unrelated.
Can't believe the rate at which the babies grow, will try and get some better pics later in the week when they are two weeks old.
How are your two doing, when do you intend to try breeding them?
Cheers John

Couldn't see this post while I posted my silly question for some reason!
She's adorable...

lisafay wrote:She is looking great. Is she friendly/timid?

She's really friendly and great with the OH, to be honest I haven't handled her much and when I did recently she huffed a bit at first but soon relaxed and was OK. I presume that they get to know people and like many animals have preferences.
Our male Fudge is fantastic to handle and so outgoing, he loves being out and about.
John

Hi Chris
Both our breeding animals are over a year old and weren't purchased as babies, to be honest I don't know the ideal age to start breeding - over to Tan for a reply to that one!
We were told that the adult female had bred before, but its the first time for the male.
We had intended to try breeding the two adults but not just as quickly as they decided. With regard to the young female I imagine we will wait until she is at least 6 months old before trying but will wait a bit longer if we think she is not fully grown. As with males of most species I don't imagine that breeding at an early age would have any adverse physical effect but if things didn't go well during the mating (for example if he was attacked by the sow) this could have a long term negative mental effect. Our first male lived very happily with two females but showed absolutely no sexual interest in them, we don't know why but Tan thinks that he might have been a homo hog!
cheers
John

Yes, I was thinking the same thing myself - he is probably physically able to breed now, but any bad experiences might put him off breeding in the future, so I think it's better to err on the side of caution lol.

It is not that uncommon for males to be attacked during mating (by unreceptive females) and I have seen injuries where flesh and spines have been removed but healed up fine with spine regrowth in full. In fact one of the boys I took from Nadege before she left the country had had this very thing happen to him and it doesn't seem to put them off. As with many animals, when in breeding mode hormones seem to take over and drive them even through pain from injury.

The recommended breeding age for both sexes is 6months but many have mated at 4-6 months. I wouldn't before the age of 6months (5 minimal) with either sex and the main reason for males is if the female is bigger and there for stronger she poses a risk to him physically also he may not have the stamina to induce receptiveness.

Another thing to remember is huffing, curling etc...is perfectly normal in any hog no matter how super sweet they are. A little like the most docile of snakes springing back if a sudden movement or sound is made is totally normal. Even the friendliest of animals can curl, huff & puff etc...and yes they do know people. I call all mine and they know when it's food time, all coming out to great me.

I can handle my hogs like no one else can even family members. Homo hog went to the RDS and bit James (Reptile Village) which is the first time hes ever done it to anyone but it was a mating bite and not aggression. Anyway I spent the day with my fingers in his mouth and all he did to me was to spit them out lol but then I tend to take the no hold barred approach with all of them. I don't care if you don't want to be held, we're doing this thing, and it works, well, with the species I've worked with. It's all about confidence, composure, comfort and frequency.

Oh and on the homohog note, they do exist (like many species across the board) and I've spent long enough trying to learn all I can. I'll do another thread and go into more detail but if an animal has no interest in breeding with the opposite sex, sings exuberantly to the same sex and all interests lie in that direction what conclusion other then homosexual could be drawn?? Oh and yes institutional induced homosexuality has also been seen but genuine homohogs (like my gays boys) do exist :).