If you’ve ever seen a hedgehog twisting its body and foaming at the mouth, you might think the animal is sick. But this strange and dramatic behavior, demonstrated in this YouTube video, is actually a completely normal — albeit mysterious — hedgehog habit called “self-anointing.”
A Normal, Healthy Hedgehog
The color of the foam often depends on what the hedgehog ate or tasted.
©Andreatop90/Shutterstock.com
Hedgehogs often self-anoint when they encounter something with a new or interesting smell or taste. They may scratch, lick, nibble, or thoroughly investigate the item. This often stimulates them to produce a large amount of frothy, foamy saliva. Using their incredible flexibility, they twist and contort their bodies to spread the foamy saliva all over their spines with their tongues and tiny feet. The entire process can last anywhere from just a few minutes to even a couple of hours. While a hedgehog is self-anointing, it becomes completely engrossed in the task, tuning out its surroundings and focusing entirely on spreading the foamy saliva across its body.
This strange habit is common in all hedgehogs, whether in the wild or domesticated as pets. Both males and females do it, and even baby hedgehogs may start this process when they are a few weeks old, typically after their eyes open. Some baby hedgehogs will even stop halfway through nursing to suddenly self-anoint.
Why Do Hedgehogs Self-Anoint?
Hedgehogs are most active at night.
©Best dog photo/Shutterstock.com
While researchers don’t know exactly why hedgehogs self-anoint, they have many compelling theories. None of them, however, can fully explain every instance of this unusual behavior.
Here are some of the most common theories:
Scent masking and camouflage: A hedgehog may anoint itself with a foreign substance to hide its own scent from predators or other aggressive hedgehogs.
Grooming and defense: Hedgehogs can safely eat some toxic prey that other animals cannot, such as cane toads. So, they might be spreading the toad’s toxins onto their quills to repel predators or parasites.
Communication: This could be a way for a hedgehog to leave a personal signal or mark its territory.
Enjoyment: It’s possible they simply like the smell of whatever they’ve found. This theory is supported by how often pet hedgehogs anoint after interacting with their human owners, new foods, or toys.
Memory: Hedgehogs might use this process to help them become familiar with a new environment or object, storing the scent as a way to remember it later.
Scent-Marking: The large surface area of a hedgehog’s spines would be perfect for spreading a scent that can evaporate slowly over time. This could leave a lasting signal for other animals and rival males.
While these theories are plausible, none can fully explain why hedgehogs self-anoint. For example, hedgehogs frequently anoint after they encounter something new. However, hedgehogs have also been observed self-anointing in completely familiar environments for no apparent reason, as seen in the YouTube video. The theory that hedgehogs only self-anoint with items that have a distinct smell or taste is also questionable. Many hedgehogs have been observed self-anointing with tasteless, odorless distilled water, yet they often refuse to anoint with new substances that have strong or acrid smells.
The Facts Behind the Foaming
Hedgehogs have curved claws for digging and typically eat insects and plants.
©Alanna W/Shutterstock.com
Early researchers once thought that self-anointing might be related to courtship, as the behavior had been observed during the hedgehogs’ breeding season. However, a 2005 study in Belgium showed that while hedgehog courtship peaks in the spring, self-anointing is most frequent in the summer, particularly in July.
The study also revealed some other interesting patterns:
Male hedgehogs self-anoint more than females.
Young males are the most frequent self-anointers, making up 35% of the study’s observations.
Young females are the second most frequent self-anointers, making up 18% of the study’s observations.
Self-annointing in adult males made up 8% of the study’s observations.
Self-annointing in adult females made up just 4% of the study’s observations.
These patterns support several possibilities. For example, if self-anointing is a form of protection, it makes sense that young males and juveniles — who are the most vulnerable — anoint the most. Males also travel more often than females and are more likely to encounter predators, which could explain why they self-anoint more frequently. Despite these many theories, the exact reason for self-anointing in hedgehogs remains a mystery. However, the sheer effort and risk involved in self-anointing — which leaves a hedgehog tired, vulnerable, and exposed — strongly suggest that it serves a crucial purpose, even if we don’t fully understand it yet.
The post Is Your Hedgehog Foaming? It’s Not Rabies—It’s a Natural Behavior Called Self-Anointing appeared first on A-Z Animals.
