Well, as most of you guessed from the pic What is it?? it is a hedgehog and yes for those who guessed he was all balled up. He is a African Pygmy Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) to be exact. Dave likes to call him a ractus his version of a walking cactus ....Zack calls him a little land urchin

The first time I saw a pygmy hedgehog was in '94 and I fell in love but, sadly could not get one and when I was ready to get one I couldn't find one. Well, about three weeks ago we had to run an errand and Amanda asked if she could go say hi to the rabbits and birds at our local pet shop. Something she loves to do whenever we get near the pet store.....a few minutes later Amanda comes running out all excited to tell me about the hedgehog (both my kids knew about my love for them) Zack and I get excited and follow her back in and see him Both kids instantly ask can we get him I of course had to say no even though I really wanted him and explained that we would have to have a proper cage etc.. just something we really can't afford to do. Well my kids started scheming and coming up with a plan They had both earned some money doing work for the neighbor and saved up their allowance and then approached us with the idea. Dave wasn't to keen on the idea of doing this but, he left it up to me...he was worried it would cause fights etc.. of course it didn't take much to convince me They came up with the majority of the cost and after a lenghty talk of it would belong to the whole family so there could be no fights of who owns him the most (you know how kids are "well I paid more than you so he is more mine") they agreed since we all pooled together to get him. Also, we had to all agree on a name that was a little hard as Zack wanted to name him Sonic Amanda and I chose Mr. Prickles so we combined the names and came up with Mr. Sonic Piney Prickles aka Mr. S P Prickles So a week and a half after first seeing him we went and picked him up He has definately captured our hearts we absolutely love him even Dave



African Pygmy Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) facts
"African pygmy hedgehogs are found in scattered local populations from Senegal in western Africa to southern Somalia and Tanzania on the continent's eastern edge. They're one of 15 hedgehog species scattered through most of Africa and Eurasia. All belong to the class Mammalia, order Insectivora, and family Erinaceidae. Southeast Asia's furry Gymnures, or moonrats, are in the same family.
Their habitats vary from forest to desert, but none of the members of the hedgehog family live in the arctic, or in areas where the ground regularly becomes saturated. Atelerix albiventris lives in semiarid areas and dry savannas.

African pygmy hedgehogs are 6-8 inches (15.3-20.3 cm) long and weigh 18-25 ounces (509-708 g). They have long, rather pointed, pinkish-brown snouts with moist, dark noses, round dark eyes, oval brownish ears, and short white hair on their brows, cheeks and bellies. The hairs on their backs and sides are modified into 1/2-1 inch (1.3-2.5 cm) long, un-barbed spines, white at the base and tip with a dark band around the middle, giving a salt-and-pepper appearance. Their back feet have only four toes; their front feet have five. Though their eyesight is reasonably good with some degree of color vision, they depend far more on their excellent hearing and sense of smell that can detect prey two inches (5 cm) or more below ground. Vocalizations include chirps, chuffs, hisses and growls that increase with agitation. When fighting or angry they twitter loudly, and if hurt or badly frightened they scream.They live 8-10 years in captivity. Their life span in the wild is about 2-3 years.

Hedgehogs have a unique muscle, called the orbicularis panniculi, circling their body under the edge of their spiny coat. A frightened hedgehog can roll into a ball and draw the edges of its spine coat together like a drawstring purse, with its head, belly and feet tucked inside. Additional muscles are attached dorsally from the tail to the skull, dividing there into five branches that control the spines on the forehead.

In the wild: African pygmy hedgehogs eat worms, snails, arthropods, frogs, lizards, snakes, eggs, nestling birds, small mammals and carrion. They also eat fruits, seeds, peanuts, fungi and roots. They consume food amounting to about 1/3 of their body weight per night.

At the zoo: They are fed cat food, chopped fruit and mealworms

Pygmy hedgehogs start foraging at dusk and continue most of the night, then return to their burrows for the day. Solitary and territorial, they enlarge their territories during brief food shortages. On average, they use an area with a radius of 220-330 yards (200-300 m) around shelter found in and under logs, among rocks, under roots of trees and brush piles, in termite mounds and burrows and under buildings. During the dry season when insects are scarce, they aestivate, or become torpid, and live off their stored fat. Their major predators are Verreaux eagle owls, honey badgers, jackals and wild dogs.

A male courts a female by running in circles around her, twittering, growling and snorting. She may initially ignore him, hiss and snort at him, run away, or curl into a defensive ball. The male persists, and the female eventually positions herself with her rear legs stretched back and her spines flattened. The male has an extra-long penis, so he can avoid being impaled on the female's spines. During copulation he secretes a waxy plug that prevents other males mating with her. After a gestation of 30-40 days, two to 10 young are born. The mother licks them clean and eats the afterbirth, then picks them up in her mouth and guides them to her teats. Newborns are blind, weigh about 0.35 ounces (10 g), and have soft, white spines at birth. Born with edema, their skin is swollen with fluid and covers the soft spines. After a few days, the young reabsorb the excess fluid, exposing the spines. Their eyes open in eight to 18 days. At two weeks they can roll up, and after about six weeks start traveling short distances with their mother. Nursing stops at 40-45 days, and they leave their mother and siblings shortly thereafter. They reach sexual maturity at about 2 months of age.




Other pics of Mr. S P Prickles
What is it??
Nummmeee