You know the ones Im talking about. The "Aww its so sweet that you drew on the walls!" and "My child isn't a bully! Hes just expressing himself.".
Bruce |
Hedgwick |
Whenever Hedgwick has a chance he tries to get hold of Bruce and tear him to shreds... literally. He goes for the jugular.
We had one of these incidents recently where Bruce was on the upper level (separated from the lower levels) hiding behind a log and Hedgwick, accidentally got placed on the same level... Within the blink of an eye Hedgwick had covered the length of the cage, jumped of Bruce and bitten into his quills!
Mom, realising what was happening reached in within 2 seconds and pulled Hedgwick off! Hedgwick was not ok with this turn in events and promptly decided to sink his fangs into MOM!
Being the softy I am, I didn’t shake him off too vigorously but instead called for Dad. He managed to get Hedgwick off after about 30 seconds of being locked onto Moms thumb and leaving behind a mangled piece of broken skin.
Bruce has made a full recovery and is back to his normal self doing belly flops off the edge of the cage hoping Mom will catch him. But the moral of this story is, Males can not cohabit. Especially after mating.
This is a lesson you often hear about as a Tenrec parent but we hadn't experienced until recently. Please learn from our experience and be careful when interacting to potentially aggressive (almost all) male Tenrecs.