Help!my hedgie keeps on biting his Toes!!!

[Venz]

Please help, my baby hedgie keeps on biting and chewing on his toes that they are wounded and we have to resort to putting on bandages on all his four toes, we went to a vet, sad to say on our location here in the Philippines there is no Vet that knows things about treating a hedgehog. Stefan (the biting hedgie) is the only one that has this behavior. We have already isolated him from his brother and sister which don't have any behavioral issues. We have asked some breeders for advise but sad to say, they said they don't know about this issue.

Please do help, how can we stop him from biting and chewing on his toes? What makes him do this? We have given him baths and we always see to it that he is fed and he has clean water, but whenever he is on his bin he would gnaw on his toes....Please advise..... :cry3:

 

[LovinHedgies]

What kind of bedding is he on?? It could be that he is allergic to the bedding. Try putting him on fleece or even paper towels if you don't have fleece. Watch him closely and see if he stops bitting his feet. Be careful with wounds on his feet - are you able to post pictures? I'd be worried about infection, especially if he is running on a wheel (poopy wheel). Ask the vet about a preventitive antibiotic.

 

[Venz]

We are using unscented wood shavings, the same brand that we used for his mom, what is really puzzling is he started doing it about 2 days ago already and we have to bandage his toes to wrap it up and to avoid having him biting them again, applied an antibiotic that the vet advised and wrapped with bandages. we are really worried about this behavior and he is the only one doing this. thanks for the advise on the beddings...i'll change it ASAP!

 

[LovinHedgies]

Hopefully the bedding change will help. I recommend using fleece liners - my hedgies love them they are easy to change and cheaper in the long run. I hope your little guy's feet heal up. Health issues are never fun.

Another thing I thought of was what condition are his nails in? Is it possible his nails were curled around? My male hedgehog has nails that curl immediately and I have to cut them very often. I would think that a funny growing nail could irritate him enough to chew on his feet.

Maybe another hedgehog person will chime in with some more ideas.