The African Pygmy Hedgehog
The hedgehog is an animal that can live in a forest to a desert. They occur throughout Africa, originating from the African Sahara. But in the classroom it lives in a ten gallon tank with a small box for it to go into, because it is nocturnal. In the classroom it also has wood chips at the bottom of the cage.
In the classroom the hedgehog eats dried cat food, but in the wild it eats mealworms and other small insects. The great eagle owl, honey badgers, striped hyena, wild dog and the jackal are all animals that eat the hedge hog.
They live alone and only get together to mate. The hedgehog is born live with tiny, soft, white spines. The mother would clean and dry the baby as soon as they're born. Thirty to thirty-five days after being born the hedgehogs start to produce permanent spines. A month and a half to two months after birth, the hedgehogs leave their mother and become independent. After thirty to thirty-five days, the mother takes them on an outing to teach them to forage for food. The babies continue to nurse ten more days.
The front feet of the hedgehog have five toes, but the rear feet have only four toes. The hedgehog has black ears and a black nose. The eyes are black and gray with the skin tone being about pinkish-white. It is about nine cm tall from foot to spines. It is also fifteen cm long and eight cm wide. The hedgehog weighs around five hundred sixty-six grams.
Hedgehogs are virtually immune to snake venom and some hibernate in the summer. There are about three different color variations of hedgehogs. One is the two-tone which are very rare. There's the white hedge hog that is not albino, it's just a result of a spontaneous mutation. There's also the white bellies or pruners.
The African Pygmy Hedgehog