Saturday, July 18, 2009

Of Hedgies and Worms

Yesterday I was cleaning out the tank of my hedgehogs, Super and Sonic when I noticed something moving in their food bowl. I took a closer look. Amidst all the leftover kitten pellets was a maggot! YUCKS!! It was truly disgusting.

I thought, Okay leave it alone...maybe Sonic may like to have a snack for tea. So I ignored its wriggly presence and started cleaning out the sawdust, poop and wee.

Now you're thinking, what's sawdust doing in the tank? Well, it came in a sack as wood pellets. When it gets wet, it disintegrates into sawdust. The function is to soak up all the smell and urine and stuff, and make the tank a wee (no pun intended) bit more rustic and warmer for my hoggies.

As I scooped bits painstakingly with a spoon, I noticed another critter making its way along the tank, so well, that goes into the food bowl as well. Then another, and another. By now, this was getting disturbing. I came to realize that the maggots were not two lonesome creatures trapped in the bowl for company, but I probably was looking at a whole platoon of them, thanks to the mother fly circling me intermittently. 

It took me a long time to make sure every single worm was out of the tank before I filled it with kitten litter made of recycled paper. It's a grayish colour and comes in strands. Nothing romantic about it, just utilitarian. 

Now the question is: why do hedgehogs favour meal worms but leave maggots alone? Do they taste different? Or is it a matter of the latter being served freeze-dried? Well I may never know. Someone please enlighten me.

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