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adventuresof-ernie · 8 years ago

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Monday we pulled Ernie out for a bit of bonding. As you may know if you’ve been keeping up with the story, we’ve tried giving him treats to help with the bonding process, first with meal worms, and also with apples, neither of which he’d cared about or tried to eat. Today we tried chicken, as his previous owner told us he liked chicken. He was very excited and ate it, but he quickly anointed, (as you can see in the video above) which I found strange, as I’ve read that they only do that when they taste or smell something that they’ve never tasted before. Perhaps we prepared it in a different way than he was used to, as Jesse fried it.. but there was no sauces or spices or anything, just plain white chicken breast in a dry pan... We’ve seen him anoint before, but never this much, this was quite a bit more “foam” than I’ve seen so that’s interesting. Of course we had to give him a bath after that, which is like his favourite things so of course he was plenty happy. Honestly, I was holding him in a towel when I went to the washroom, and as soon as I turned on the tap he perked right up!! I’m telling you, this little guy LOVES baths. This was like his 4th or 5th bath since we brought him home less than a month ago though, so I’m hoping we can slow down the trend! Once he was dried off, I put some more vitamin E on him, and he ran a few laps around the couch before 20 minutes of bonding with Jesse. He was pretty happy, as he usually is after bath time.

Tuesday we had a “Snuggle Sack” with us which Ernie seemed to like, he would settle in it on our laps and that was that. He still go into his huffy-puffy fits, however they would be over much quicker than if he didn’t have one. So we’re maybe starting to find some things that this grumpy gus actually likes. He spent about 5 minutes on the couch wandering around, he then spent half an hour in his snuggle sack on Jesse’s lap, and then half an hour in the snuggle sack on my lap before we put him into his “new remodeled” bin. If you want to read more about that, check it out here >>http://bit.ly/2mVAwHS<<

On Wednesday Ernie was like a whole new hedgehog!! When Jesse woke up at 5am, he could hear Ernie running around in his wheel, and when I woke up at 6:45, I could STILL hear him running around! I knew that once he heard me get up (and subsequently the cats start meowing at me for breakfast) it would startle him and he would hide in his castle, so I stayed in bed a few more minutes to let Ernie be himself. At around 6:55 he stopped running in his wheel and started eating a lot! I got out of bed at 7:00am and the cats came with me, and by the time I made it to the living room, he was already burrowed in his castle. When Jesse got home from work around 2pm, he says that Ernie was out of his castle and up and about and looking around, which is unusual for him during the day time! Jesse took advantage by taking Ernie out of his bin and letting him run around on the couch for a bit, and then brought him to his playpen to explore in there a little more.

At about 9pm we pulled him out of his bin again for some bonding time with us. I put him in his snuggle sack and put him on my chest and he was huffy puffy for a little while, then Jess took him from me and put him down on the coffee table for a moment and he opened right up immediately! So we let him run around there for a few minutes. He anointed with Jesse’s leather wallet. lol.

It was really exiting to see how open he was. I’m not sure why there was such a big jump in his mood all of a sudden, whether he’s getting more used to us, or he’s physically more comfortable with the switch to fleece and his nail trimming, our attempts to keep his skin from getting too dry... but I am SO in love!!

Look at him in Jesse’s hands, he’s not in ball form! That’s a big deal!!!

Wednesday was a big day. I hope this is us making progress! <3

On Thursday we pulled Ernie out around 8pm. He opened up and wandered a little bit around the couch, and then Jesse decided to put him on the coffee table again... he LOVED it, he ran around and pushed coasters around, jumped over remote controls - it was the sweetest thing! Jesse decided to let him get a little more active and we put him in his play pen. He actually wandered around for 15-20 minutes and went half way through his tunnel (before squirming out the way he came in backwards) before finally going into his hide, which usually happens close to right away, if not right away! I genuinely feel like he’s really warming up to us and it’s just SO nice! :)

Friday night we brought him out on the couch for a bit and he wasn’t too interested. He seemed to be having a grumpy day. He wandered around a little bit on the couch and then curled up and went to sleep, so Jesse put him back in his bin since he was sleeping anyways, but then we heard him running on his wheel a little while later, so we figured since he wanted exercise now, we’d put him in his play pen. He ran around a little bit and the a few minutes later buried himself in his hide. This time he didn’t even look for the “door” he got his nose under the corner and lifted it up with his face so he could get in. We shut the door and gave him some privacy and then when we were going to bed, we out him back in his bin for the night.

On Saturday I put him in his play pen for 1.5-2 hours while I did his laundry (Washed his bedding, fleece strips, towel, etc.) Since I was home alone, I would shut the door to the spare room to ensure the cats did not bother him. For the first while he was burrowed under his shredded paper, and he then made his way over to the cardboard box. Typically the shredded paper is in the cardboard box, but I pulled them apart today and kept them separate. The second time I came back up from the laundry room (it was the longest I had been gone of the 3 trips downstairs) I opened the door it felt pretty chilly in that room. We knew that the radiator in the room was broken, and that it is a little chillier than the rest of the apartment, but since the door is typically open, sharing heat with the rest of the space I guess I never noticed how chilly it can get, or how quickly it can get to that point. We do have a heating pad underneath his playpen hoping it would help, but now that I’ve noticed exactly how chilly it’s gotten, I doubt that it is really helping. Since hedgehogs are more susceptible to cold than we are, I’m wondering if he really notices the temperature drop even when the door is open, although we can barely tell. Because of this I wonder if he will be more active in there once the weather warms up, perhaps he’s borrowing and hiding as a way to keep warm (on top of the fact that he just wants to, I’m sure) but I can’t help but think that might be at least part of the reason. I guess only time will tell!

Once all of Ernie’s laundry was done, I brought him out and put him on the coffee table since he seems to love being on it. I also have it pulled to the side of the room because I’ve been hanging out on the floor the last few days, meaning the table is right up against the radiator, so I thought that would help him warm up from the chilly play pen! He ran across the table twice and then found a cozy spot right next to the rad and didn’t move for a while, he may have been trying to sleep. So I grabbed his snuggle sack and brought him to my lap. He did huff and puff a tiny bit, but he relaxed quickly. Ernie didn’t crawl around on my lap or explore at all like he does with Jesse, but he did hang out there calmly, so I’ll take that as a win!

Sunday was pretty mellow, he hung out with us for a bit, nothing exciting, he kept to himself and was pretty huffy puffy.

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