I work in the education department of a zoo, and our hands-on animals include a pair of African pygmy hedgehogs. We introduced the male to the female a few months ago, and have been carefully monitoring the sow’s weight. She gained a tiny bit, then a tiny bit more, along with an increase in appetite. Three weeks ago, because of the gain, when we suspected, but weren’t quite sure, that she was pregnant, we separated them, made her a nesting den, turned off her lights and stopped handling her. And waited.
Yesterday, she gave birth! We’ve seen at least three hoglets, and she still looks pretty rotund, so maybe there’s a few more in there. The average litter size is 4, but can be up to 9!
The babies are born with spines, but they are covered with a membrane, which dries up and falls off within a day or two, as the spines start growing. Right now, they look almost like bumpy pinky mice. APHs, like lots of domestic species, have been selectively bred for interesting colour patterns for some time - our boar is “champagne” and the sow “salt-and-pepper,” which I believe is the dominant colour. We’ll see when the spines develop their colouration in a few weeks.
We have instituted a very strict Hands Off policy, since any stress to the mother right now can lead to her cannibalizing the young. We are only opening her enclosure to add food and water. Hedgehog poop is pretty nasty, but we’re going to forego cleaning for at least two weeks, at which time, we’ll count and sex the babies for registration on our database, have the vet check them out, and start handling them. We intend to keep the babies - however, if we do end up with more than four, we may rehome one or two, to other accredited zoos.
Here in CA, it’s illegal to keep hedgehogs as pets. In other states and countries, they’re allowed, and quite common, although, to me, they don’t seem to be a great pet species. They’re nocturnal, eat live bugs, are covered in pokey spines…
But they’re pretty cute! These aren’t our babies; I think they’re a few weeks old.
