A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper

A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper
Ever wonder what its like to share your world with a bunch of crazy critters? Tune in to find out!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Who Knew?? - 1st Edition

So - since I have funky critters I thought it might be fun to share funky critter facts.  Here's an interesting hedgehog fact:

Did you know that hedgehogs are extremely temperature sensitive? They need a room temperature between 74 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit. If the little prickly guy gets too cold he can start to go into hibernation.  This can actually be a fatal condition. On the flip side - too hot is bad as well.  Overheated hogs go into a condition called estivation (also known as "summer sleep") which is similar to hibernation and not good for them either.

Our little Nigel has a space heater for each room he plays or sleeps in.  One that keeps his cage warm, one in the bonus room that usually points towards the TV cabinet since he loves to sleep under there, and one downstairs for when he plays in his pen.  We also have emergency kits prepped for those just in case times and we have the heat pads that you unwrap and snap to start the heating process - at least we can tuck these into a blanket and keep him toasty warm.  He has many layers of blankets in his cage as well so he can choose how warm he wants to be.  I discovered a few days ago that he also enjoys the hair dryer - he stands at your feet and lets you warm him up - very cute.

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