Hullo!

Aww lovely you have deffo one beanie and possible greys or chocolates from what I can see from the picture .

Enjoy the forum x

A warm welcome to our happy family hun.

Hugs

JO xx

Hi Dave!

I'm Melanie! Welcome to the forum. What a lovely surprise for you. Mum is lovely and the babies are soooo cute!

Great picture of mom and little ones Dave.

Hi welcome to the forum, and well done for caring for your pregnant hoggie, must have been a shock! xx

Thank you very much for your warm welcoming! And yes it was a shock, fortunately my girl Kimu has been a super mom! And now I will have to find responsible people who will take care of them, I will just keep the mom and one of the babies but I still haven't decided which one and whether it will be a boy or girl! I don't plan on breeding any more, it is far too stressing for me! I don't think I have the nerves of steel that my Kimu has, she is so strong and I always worry for everything so I don't think I could take another experience (however adorable, enlightening and nurturing for the spirit) like this again!

welcome to the forum and well done for rearing the hoglets. did they sell her to you as an older hog or did you think she was a baby herself? im sure they could have warned you that she might be pregnant

Well, in reality I got her and the father, apparently they had been living together in the same cage but I didn't know a lot when I got them! (I got it from a young girl who could no longer keep them). So the first night I heard some strange noises and when I looked the male was trying to mount her so I separated them! And I did not consider the possibility of them having mated, however 14 days later she had the babies, I got them on Nov 14 and she had the little ones on Nov 27!
But my worry now is if I should already separate them from mommy! Right now she was trying to go out of her box, so I took her out, held her in my arms and as she was trying to get off I put her back in and she went inside her igloo again! The babies are already 5 weeks and 3 days, and I don't want to risk any female getting pregnant again, so, shall I wait till next Tuesday when they become 6 weeks, or should I separate them all ASAP?!
Please give me your recommendations!

seperate at 6 weeks, seperate males from females and mom, girls can stay with mom another week x

Normally they should stay with their mum until they are six weeks of age - any boys should be seperated from their mother and also their sisters as they are capable of reproducing from such a young age so it is vital that any boys are placed into their own home.

You are safe to handle the babies and I am sure mum would appreciate some time away from them as she will be coming to the point where she will not want the babies with her anymore.

A warm welcome to our happy family love, Kimu is gorgeous.

Hugs

JO xx

Thanks again to everyone! I hope it all goes well with you in the following weeks with the low temps!
I have a question, remember today is 6 weeks since Kimu's babies were born! So, I have separated the boys from the girls, my question is: Is it possible that the mother would have somehow sent the boys out of the igloo? Because I picked these two babies outside the igloo in a corner of the box!
And just to be sure I have already prepared different boxes so I can separate all the hedgehogs!
I hope I can separate them all today just in case I made a mistake and didn't recognise all of the hedgies sex, I don't want to be irresponsible and let them inbreed!
Another question, the little ones I just separated were quite restless, will they be ok? And how long will they be restless? What happens if one of them starts crying? I have heard some whimperings the previous days from a little one but could not tell if it was a girl or a boy...
All comments are welcomed!

Hey ... Seperating then is the right thing to do at 6 week sold the babies are well able to fend for themselves they will have teeth and will be quite able to eat kibble . They will be fine . As for the sex of the babies .. Easy .. Boys have to little holes one like a belly button and one near the bottom girls only have one .... There is a picture somewhere I will find it and upload for younx

Thank you very much Lou! Yep, you are right, they weren't very happy but I think they will be ok, and I think I made a mistake because when I was moving them i looked for the belly button that you are talking about and I think they are all boys rather than girls! I will check again but for the time being they are all separate now!
Thanks again!