Hedgehog self-anointing

Here is one last photograph of my rescue hoglet self-anointing and I do like this one as it looks as though she's smiling. The Handbook of British Mammals says" Self-anointing is an intriguing activity in which the hedgehog is stimulated to produce frothy saliva which is liberally plastered over its body. The nature of stimulus and purpose remain a mystery but likely to be a means of spreading odours over body for self-advertisement (eg to facilitate individual recognition)." My Hedgehog seemed to do this whenever she tasted something new. She had a surprisingly long tongue for such a small animal and you can see some frothy saliva to the right of her tongue where she stretched even further. I released my young Hedgehog a week or so back (when she was much larger than this), and she did return to her box after a first night out. But alas, she did not return after that and her food has remained uneaten. I'm hoping she might return when it's time to hibernate. Fingers crossed she's faring well.

Done