Hedgie on a cloud

I bought Niko a little fleece bed for him to sleep in... in lieu of shredding the lining in the corner of his cage every night. Of course this morning I found him not in his bed, but I am convinced he can learn! Here's today lesson:

Niko: *burrow burrow burrow*

Niko: *nudge nudge nudge* ... it fell

Niko: ok mom, how was I suppose to use this again?

Niko: *climb climb climb*

Niko: I'm king of the cloud!

Niko: time to curl up...

Niko: hedgie ball on a cloud complete!

Carpet... nom nom

So every time I put Niko on the floor, he chews my carpet. I know he's doing it so he can get the smell and anoint himself, but at the same time, I don't want a hole in my carpet! Finally tonight I let him have his way. First he tired to bite the mat I have next to my shoe rack. No good, but he tried hard enough to lift his hind legs up as he was biting... looks kinda like a hedgehog pushup...

Then he got to the real carpet and started biting away...

Niko: I will eat you!!!
or alternatively
Niko: This is Sparta!!!

So after eating the carpet, Niko does his anointing...

Niko: So first you gotta lift yourself up a little,
then reach your head back...

Go on...

Niko: Okay, so once you got your head back,
you lick yourself, like this...

One more time?

Niko: First reach reach reach....


Niko: Stick your legs out to reach even further,
and lick!

Niko: There, that's how it's done.

And in case you didn't see the foam from his anointing in the previous photos, here's a close up to show what I'm talking about...

Hedgie Redecorating

I noticed that Niko just liked to bundle up in a ball in the corner, so I rearranged his cage a bit to make the log just serve as a tunnel to run through and over. And then I left for a weekend of snowboarding. When I left his cage looked something like this:

When I came back, I noticed Niko had redecorated, and his cage looked like this:

I guess he liked using the log as part of his bedroom after all...

One of these is not like the other...

... one of these does not belong.

Okay, need a hint? It's the one with a spiky butt and a furry head.

I woke Niko up this morning, and he looks like a total sleepyhead in the picture below.

"aww mom, why'd you wake me up? I was dreaming..."

Sofa Climbing

Like rock climbing, but on a sofa. And with a hedgehog. Who can't actually climb up the sofa. But is beyond adorable running around on my sofa ;)

Floating Hedgehog

Now I know there was a reason why I got the glass top coffee table... floating hedgehog!

Also, much to my pleasure, Niko seems to have adjusted to my camera shutter noise, possibly because I kept on snapping away from underneath the coffee table where he couldn't actually hide by ducking his head down. That means I got a ton of photos of Niko checking out my coffee table digs, and I can't decide which is cutest... so you decide! Vote in the comments :)

a. Niko starts checking out the candles

b. Niko looks at the camera

c. Niko sniffs to the left

d. Niko starts (understatement) getting annoyed at the paparazzi

e. Niko looking like the cute baby hedgie he is

f. Niko gets his close up shot

g. And Niko is done with the candle tour

Also, as of today I have had Niko for 1 month. I'd like to say that our progress in getting to know each other has been good, even with my insane amount of work travel in January. I was petting Niko today while holding him in my lap, and he was totally chill, not being defensive (although he does if you surprise him). Hopefully his quilling phase will be over soon and he'll be even less grumpy and perhaps will explore more exotic locations in my apartment!

Cricket Night

In addition to Niko's new cage lifestyle, I also bought some cricket treats for him. I was going to buy just 1 or 2 live crickets from the store, but a. the smallest amount they had was 10, and b. I don't think Niko would have gone after the live ones anyways. So I bought a can of dead ones. More expensive, but I'm spoiling my baby hedgie of course. And I bought him a new toy. More spoiling.
The package even had a picture of a hedgehog on it, so I figured I'd give it a try. It's also one of those that you can put a treat inside, so I figured it'd be a perfect combo with the crickets.
And if you've ever wondered what the inside of a can of crickets looks like, here ya go. Yum.

Ever hear of a hedgehog anointing himself? It is the most bizarre thing to watch. So watch.

When Niko is anointing himself it's the most animated I see him, and he just looks like he's crazy. Below's the snapshot where I caught his tongue sticking out.


I stuck Niko in his cage afterwards with the toy with the remaining crickets inside, which he seemed to enjoy exploring a bit more - though I'm not sure if he's actually eating the crickets...