The Four-toed Hedgehog

This is Charlie, the hedgehog who created this site, also known as an African Pygmy Hedgehog

The four-toed hedgehog, African pygmy hedgehog or comes from sub-Saharan Central Africa and inhabits savanna areas and crop fields.

Their body is completely white, which emphasizes their dark head. The four-toed hedgehog has very short legs, and as its name makes clear, it only has four toes. They are smaller than other hedgehogs, at about 20 cm (8 in) long.

Four-toed hedgehogs can swim and climb, and they can be quite noisy and active.

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Location

The four-toed hedgehog also known as the African Pygmy hedgehog is the type of hedgehog that Charlie belongs to and this site is dedicated to him.

Charlie and his four toed hedgehog brethren come from Sub-Saharan Central Africa. They have an extensive range and a stable wild population which means they are of least concern as far as their species proliferation is concerned.

Diet

Their diet is similar to other species whereby grubs, insects, ants, snails, spiders, some plants and small vertebrates all appear on the menu.

They apparently have a high tolerance for toxins and have been seen eating venomous snakes and scorpions.

When kept as pets they typically fed low fat dry cat food, spiced up with worms and some fruit.

Description

Their body is completely white (with an occasional dark patch) which makes their darker coloured head stand out. There are one of the smallest of hedgehogs at about 20cm long which is about 8 inches. They have short legs and only four toes hence their name, other hedgehogs have a more standard 5 toes.

They also weigh a measly 250 – 700grams.

They vary greatly in colouration which really helps us to recognise indivudal visitors or your own pet among others. They have brown spikes with white or cream coloured tips. Their fur thought mainly white is often speckled with grey.

Habitat

They tend to inhabit the savannah and croplands avoiding forested areas across countries such as Senegal and Gambia in the West to Somalia in the East and can be found as far south as Mozambique.

They prefer temperatures of between 24 – 30 °C and if the temperature should drop below that for a period of time they will enter a state of hibernation in order to conserve energy.

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Interesting titbits

Not only do they make interesting and unusual pets but they can also swim (though I don’t think they like it that much) and climb which they are pretty good at. They are also rather noisy and active especially at night.

Females are generally larger than males!!

If the temperature goes over 30 °C for an extended period of time they will enter a state of “estivation” which is like hibernation but kicks in when it’s too hot and arid. The hedgehog slows down and lowers its metabolic rate to conserve energy.

When the African Pygmy hedgehog is introduced to a new smell it will sometimes “self-anoint” whereby it creates a large amount of foam using the new scent and its own saliva and spreads this onto its own spines. No one really knows why they do this but it may be a self-preservation action in order to smell more like your local surroundings as hedgehogs have been known to self-anoint with poisonous toads.

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