Funny holiday - Day of Bald Hedgehogs

The quills of porcupines, echidnas and hedgehogs are armor with which rodents and mammals protect themselves from attacks by predators Leather chain mail makes animals invulnerable, allowing them to passively resist aggressors On average, each hedgehog has up to 5,000 spines in its armor, each of which is lifted upward by a skin muscle Inside, the spines are hollow and saturated with air, so they weigh very little At the base of each needle there is a flexible neck, which acts as a shock absorber when the animal falls, insuring it from damage Without its spiky armor, the animal is very vulnerable This applies to young individuals whose needles are not hard and sharp enough for the first time after birth Therefore, hedgehogs must be treated with great care As well as to nature, which is defenseless against human activity On August 17, a funny holiday with serious overtones is celebrated - Bald Hedgehog Day Few people know that representatives of the Erinaceidae family are born with needles that are hidden under the skin so as not to injure the mother A few hours after the hedgehog is born, the spines are visualized, but are white Two days later, pigmented needles appear on the baby’s body, and at one and a half months old he can already use chain mail to protect himself from enemies The spiky shell does not protect 100% from predators An eagle owl and other large birds from the owl family can grab a hedgehog without damaging their claws, and a badger can squeeze its snout into the barely noticeable hole that is formed by the animal curled up into a ball The needles scare away other predators, reliably protecting them from aggressors You have to pay for everything, including the presence of barbed chain mail A hedgehog cannot clean fleas with its paws or gnaw out ticks with its teeth, as other mammals do Therefore, needles are usually home to a host of parasites This must be taken into account when bringing a hedgehog into the house The animal loses its quills during natural molting or due to illness The cause of spine loss in pets can be an incorrect diet, hypervitaminosis (excess of vitamins A and E) or mites that cause skin irritation A hedgehog may become bald due to hormonal imbalances, stress (for example, when moving to a new home) or frequent bathing Water procedures dry out the dermis, as does insufficient humidity in the room This leads to peeling and peeling of the skin, and then to the loss of needles The appearance of bald spots or baldness of a hedgehog is an alarming symptom In this case, the animal should definitely be shown to a veterinarian Bald Hedgehog Day encourages you to be attentive to your pets and to the nature of which these cute mammals are a part