Cute prickly ball ... Permanently a positive hero of numerous children's fairy tales and cartoons. Recently, townspeople more and more often give birth to this animal as a pet. But did you know that hedgehog eats, how to properly care for it, and indeed what to do to make the animal comfortable, calm and joyful even in captivity?
Let's try to talk about this in more detail.
What does a hedgehog eat? General information about the representative of this class
Having opened any encyclopedia, you can find out that the hedgehog is considered a mammal of the same family of hedgehogs. It is common in many parts of the world, from Europe to
Asia Minor, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and East China. The body length of the animal averages 25 cm, the tail is very short - 3 cm, an elongated muzzle with a sharp and constantly moist nose. Body weight rarely exceeds 800 grams.
It is generally accepted that a hedgehog is covered from head to toe with thorns, the length of which, by the way, does not exceed 3 cm. This is not entirely true. The fact is that if you look closely, you can see that the head and abdomen of the animal, on the contrary, are covered with thick and stiff brown hair.
Hollow inside the needle grow at the same rate as the wool, and in adults their number reaches an impressive figure of 5-6 thousand.
What does a hedgehog really eat ?
Probably, I will surprise many if I say that hedgehogs never eat fruit. Absolutely. Not a gram. They are predators, which means that in nature, hedgehogs eat mice, snakes and various insects.
Why then all these apples on needles? Is it really just a masterful move in advertising juice? This is not entirely true. These mammals do prick acid fruits, but not at all in order to take them home and eat.
According to scientific data, the body of this animal was initially, literally from birth, infected with a huge number of parasites, which it tries to get rid of with the help of malic or any other fruit acid. Hedgehogs who chose parks and city squares as their habitat often do the same, but not with apples, pears or plums, but with cigarette butts. Waking up tobacco kills animal subcutaneous ticks.
Now you yourself understand that a hedgehog eats a snake, a beetle, a butterfly or a lizard, but not what we are used to seeing in videos about juice or fruit.
By the way, after hibernation, the animal wakes up very thin and pretty hungry, so the first days can look for food for days on end.
What does a hedgehog eat? The most interesting information about a mammal
- Think about when you most often met hedgehogs. Right, at dusk or late in the evening. And this is not surprising, the animal is not at all afraid of meeting a person, as many believe, it just leads a nocturnal lifestyle.
- The animal can be considered the owner in the universal understanding of the word. He rarely moves away from his home, and he completely banishes strangers by a peculiar grunt.
- In a normal situation, hedgehogs communicate with each other using a whistle.
- After a 49-day pregnancy, babies weighing only 12 grams each are born. They are completely naked, blind and helpless.
- Water is fatal for this family, so bathing mammals that settled in the house as pets is strictly prohibited. In the wild, they prefer to hide even from light rain and never settle near swamps and other bodies of water.
- When playing, small hedgehogs usually “butt”.
- By pricking leaves in the autumn, the animal prepares for hibernation and tries to keep warm in every possible way.