You just had to have pictures, didn't you?

Well, pics should be up along with information here in the next hour or so. Not that sane people aren't already in bed, but hey, we never claimed to be sane. LOL I want to apologize for the fact that many of the babies we got pics of tonight were not terribly amused. I didn't think about the fact that many of them are at that lovely three to four week quilling period where EVERYONE is evil incarnate. Personally, I think if I were trying to hatch a cactus through my skin, I'd be a little pissy myself, but it doesn't make photography easy. Poor Bill, he watches me handle these little guys, and they're a little shy and grumpy, but overall really nice. Then I set them down and he takes picture number one. Camera clicks, hedgie hops, picture is of little quillball. Usually most of our hedgies either don't react in the first place or stop reacting after the first shot or two. However, little ones at this age are almost across the board convinced that that silly clicking noise is something that is planning to come eat them, or at the very best to make their skin hurt worse. I would tell everyone that they're just going to have to wait until next weekend and hope to get better shots then, but I won't BE here. So I'm afraid that people wanting babies just are not going to have the best of pictures to choose from this round. I'll do my best to answer questions about personality and color and such, and once I'm gone I'm sure Bill will try to help with it, just please keep in mind that most of these little monsters are going to be much more laid back than they are right now.

Some things you never get used to...

You know, we've been doing this for eight years now, breeding hedgehogs. I still get asked frequently either "do you make a lot of money breeding hedgehogs?" (Answer: "I wish! I'll be happy if we start breaking even one of these years!") or "it must be a lot of fun to breed hedgehogs, isn't it?" (Answer: "Some of the time, yes. Sometimes it utterly sucks.")

One of the worst parts of breeding hedgehogs is "the smell". I can see other experienced breeders already nodding their heads. If you've been at it a while, you know "the smell". That faint odor that has you disturbing nests, moving boxes, and otherwise doing things you wouldn't because you KNOW that something (ie a baby) in that cage is dead. Even when it makes no sense, like when the babies are almost four weeks old, you just KNOW. Ninane, for no reason _I_ can comprehend, eviscerated and ate the face off of one of her four week old babies sometime in the last 24 hours. I discovered this when we were downstairs taking pictures of babies tonight. It was not a pleasant sight to say the least.

So, to summarize this breeding round: Orenda, who was bred to Maram and very obviously pregnant with what should have been OMG dark and very nice tempered babies, miscarried at three weeks. For bonus points Morgan was with me when I found the results. Cynda started picking hers off at two weeks, so I pulled the last two (of five) and gave them to Magena. Pritika started picking HERS off the next week, and I pulled the remaining three (of five) and gave them to Jade. She killed the smallest and weakest of them, but raised the other two beautifully. (It wasn't in the best of shape when I gave it to her, so may have died on its own, I think Pritika had stopped feeding them) Next, Magena's milk dried up and she stopped feeding all SEVEN of her little ones (five of her own plus her two fosters) so I got to bring them all upstairs and handfeed them. Fortunately they've all been doing great at going over to dish feeding, so I've been able to get a little sleep at least. Now Ninane killed one of her two boys, and her remaining two are in with the seven upstairs. Admittedly, this is a worse run than average, but its definitely a really good example of why many long time owners/breeders are convinced that hedgehogs have a plot to drive their humans completely barking mad.

So why do we keep doing it? I'm not always entirely sure. Years ago, when we had our first hedgie, we also had sugar gliders we were breeding. After the second time I found them playing at pulling taffy with the remains of a deceased baby, I was perfectly happy to sell them to a good friend who had more experience with them than I did. So why was it so easy to bail on them but not on hedgehogs? I really don't know, I just know there would be a big hole in my life without them. Not to mention, after all these years of breeding, we're finally really seeing what we've been working on so long come to fruition. I can finally breed more for color, because almost all the animals I have to choose from have good to excellent temperaments and family histories of healthy animals. Does that mean we've reached where we want to be? In some ways I guess it does. That just means that now I have to set my goals higher. :)

Our Newest Family Member...

Our Daughter Ting

I want to apologize to everyone for the fact that I have been almost terminally disorganized lately. For anyone who doesn't know, we are coming to the end of an almost two year journey to adopt a lovely young lady from China, and I will FINALLY be traveling from May 18th to 31st to bring her home. Needless to say, I'm losing my mind trying to get ready both to leave, and to leave Bill in charge of all the million little things I take care of on a daily basis caring for all the animals around this crazy place.

Then there are also the small nervous breakdowns at bringing an 11 year old from another culture, language, etc into the middle of our lunatic asylum. Somehow I don't think a farm with a thundering herd of hedgehogs (and other critters) was high on her wish list for her new adoptive family, so I'm just a tiny bit nervous.

Regardless, we will be getting pictures of the babies that are almost ready posted this weekend, and I will do my best to help with reservations before I leave, and as I am able while I'm in China. (isn't the internet wonderful?) Wish me luck!!!

Laura
Keeper of the Chaos
PogStar Hedgehogs

Welcome to the PogStar Blog!!!

Greetings and Welcome all!!! I have been considering a blog for some time now as a way to keep customers updated on all that is going on around here and have finally gotten around to setting it up! I will still answer individual emails and am happy to do so, this is just a quick way to check up on us for those watching for babies or just checking in to see what is going on!! We are currently hoping to have baby pictures posted this coming weekend, if not sooner. Babies from the current litters should be ready to go right around the first of June, but as always, thats up to them. I'm looking forward to using this blog as a way to keep people up to date on goings on around here, as well as on some of my thoughts about our animals and where our breeding program is headed. Thanks for visiting!!!

Laura
Keeper of the Chaos
PogStar Hedgehogs