This past Sunday I got an African pygmy hedgehog, and I named her Periwinkle (thought that sounded like a pretty good name for an animal covered in spikes). She's four years old, and right now she still hisses at me in her tiny-motor grumpy sound, but I'm hoping she'll warm up to me soon. She is generally a pretty happy little critter, and whenever I let her out of her cage she's immediately up and running about, sniffing all my stuff, but I have to restrict her a little so she won't get stuck under my dresser or in my closet or anything. Feeding is convenient because she eats dry cat food, and she herself doesn't have any odor or smell like dogs or mice or other pets. Cleaning up after her is pretty easy, except she tracks her bedding (don't worry, it's clean bedding!) on my carpet, which unfortunately is super hard to spot dirt on, so I'll have to vacuum it. Periwinkle doesn't like loud noise, so it's probably best that I keep her in my room, because my room is probably the quietest room in the whole house. I just weighed her today on our little kitchen scale and she is exactly a pound (which is the ideal weight for a hedgehog), so she isn't overweight or anything, and I don't have an obese hedgehog to make diet plans for. In the spring when it gets warmer outside I'm planning on making her a little playpen so that she can get her exercise and be in a more natural habitat. I don't want to have her running around too much in the house because my parents wouldn't be very happy if she pooped or anything on the floor, especially if she went under the couch or the stove. Fortunately her cage is big enough she should be able to get some exercise.
