Who’s that hiding there in the ornaments?

It’s Falafel! (Check out her cute little teeth!)

Falafel is half-jewish. She loves to enjoy the dim candlelight from our menorah.

Now get settled in because Falafel is ready to deliver presents!

And off she goes! With her little reindeer-hogs.

Spreading holiday cheer to all!

Ok, I’m a huge nerd. But how could I not with all this cuteness! And don’t worry- Falafel got extra worms for being such a good sport taking these pictures. She’s been in a particularly good mood the past few days- must be the holiday spirit!

Oh, and I don’t want to forget to say…

HAPPY HEDGIEDAYS!

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season filled with cheer, family, friends, over-eating, and of course, cute animals. Especially hedgehogs.

The post Happy Hedgiedays! appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Looking at pictures of cute animals is literally good for your health. And, it can improve your performance at work. It increases concentration and boosts your mood. You now have something to say next time your boss catches you looking at the top 20 baby animal pictures list- just show her the study!

So, do yourself a favor and look at these cute pictures of my hedgehog, Falafel. And while you’re at it, wander on over to see how adorable she looks during bath time, how cute her first time outside was, and how sweet she looked as a baby.

Seriously- how could you not love this little snug?

It took her about a day to figure out that she loved her wheel, but now she is an addict/ speed demon. 

Can I have some mealworms please?

She likes to hide in towels. 

Falafel selfie! 

Oh hi… didn’t see you there! 

Doin’ some sniffin’

Are we related?

Food time! Sometimes she only eats if she feels like no one can see her- hence the towel. 

Feeling brave and coming up to the camera

This is my favorite picture of her. It captures her curiosity. 

Making her runway debut at the 2014 Oscars

What are you looking at?Two best friends hanging out

Ok- now your concentration will be 10% better and your mood is improved. It’s science. You’re welcome!

Visit Pins and Procrastination Blog’s profile on Pinterest.

The post It’s Hard Not to Love a Hedgehog (Vol. 2) appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Happy Hedgehog Humpday!

You’ve seen Falafel’s adorableness when she gets a bath. Well, believe it or not, this may be even cuter! Last weekend the temperature got above 70 degrees for the first time since we got Falafel, so we took her outside for her first time ever!

Our building has a nice little courtyard in front so we took her out so she could do some exploring and sniffing. And she did a lot of both. Enjoy the adorableness:

When we first put her down on the ground, she sniffed vigorously

Then she started to walk around a little, still sniffing

A nice closeup

She seriously could not get enough of the smells

Sniffs in a circle

Oh, hello!

She found a smell she really liked here and she started anointing

Getting ready to anoint

After about 10 minutes she got more comfortable and started walking even farther

Could she BE any cuter? (read as Chandler from Friends)

She got really excited and started walking around even faster

After about 20 minutes she realized I was there with the camera and stopped to pose

Very photogenic

She had to sniff the camera too!

People have asked me if we take her outside on a leash or anything- and we don’t. I’ve seen a video of a hedgehog on a leash but if we tried to put one on Falafel she would fight so much she would probably injure herself. She is a good little explorer, but she doesn’t try to run away.

She usually likes to check in with me while she is exploring, whether that is on the floor of our apartment, or outside. And even though she is kind of fast, we are faster. So no worries about her getting away.

If you have a hedgehog that you think will try to run though- you could always get them a playpen! I’ve been thinking of getting one for Falafel- I guess we will see.

Falafel is going to keep being adorable, so there will certainly be another Hedgehog Humpday in the future! Keep your eyes open for adorable hedgehog posts.

The post Falafel the Hedgehog and the Outside World appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

If your hedgehog is anything like Falafel, then I bet that they are an active little pokey who loves running on the wheel and exploring, and you want to provide them with fun activities. Then you have come to the right place. And if you don’t have a pet hedgehog and you just want to see cute pictures of a hedgehog walking through a maze, you have also come to the right place.

See? Adorable.

After we made our maze, I learned that PVC pipe is terrible for the environment. It is full of additives that are dangerous both to the environment and human health, creates large amounts of waste, and is difficult to recycle, to name a few issues.

So, you can use PVC pipe as a base for your maze, but a more environmentally friendly alternative would be to use a form of polyethylene pipe, which is considered a more healthy and easily recyclable form of plastic pipe than PVC. (see article).

It is not always easy to find polyethylene pipe in large enough sizes for hedgehogs, but home depot carries a 4 inch wide 10 foot segment online.

So- what you need is:

• A length of pipe (ideally around 10 feet) at least 3-4 inches wide. (Most people suggest 4 inches wide because this is wide enough for a hedgehog to completely turn around inside of it. We chose a 3 inch pipe because Falafel loves to squeeze into tight spaces and we thought she would prefer it.)
• Several different pipe connectors of appropriate size for your pipe (I recommend 4 L shapes and 2 T shapes)
• A hacksaw
• Sander (optional)

You can easily find all of these supplies at most hardware stores.

Ready to go!

To make the maze:

• cut the pipe into 1 foot long segments using the hacksaw
• sand the edges of the pipe (optional)
• place the 1 foot segment pipes into the connectors at chosen angles to build a maze!
• put treats periodically throughout the maze (also optional)

And it’s done!

That will be one happy hedgehog! We learned quickly that when we put Falafel in the maze, she finds a cozy spot to sleep unless we leave openings periodically, so we usually set it up like this:

It’s more fun to watch that way too, because we get to see her peeking out every once in a while. She loves finding her wormies in there.

The maze comes apart easily for convenient storage.

 Have fun! Your hedgie will enjoy the maze almost as much as you will enjoy watching!

The post How to make a maze for your pet hedgehog appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

If you follow me on instagram (sunflower_susie) you will immediately notice that I have just about the most adorable pet hedgehog ever. Besides my parents’ dogs, she is the only thing I take pictures of lately.

Her name is Falafel Hedgington, or Falafel the Hedgehog. She sometimes goes by Falafalaf or Little Munchkin. She is a champagne colored African Pygmy Hedgehog.

After Lars and I found our apartment, we were disappointed that we couldn’t have dogs here. I am allergic to (and kind of suspicious of) cats, although I think they’re cute. So I did some research on what pets do best in an apartment. My initial thought was that I wanted a duck. Unfortunately, ducks need an outside space and usually a pond or some sort of water body. So I then discovered the amazingness of hedgehogs.

Image from Raising Ducks at Home

(Side note on pets we considered- Lars thinks that Potbelly Pigs don’t grow to be big. Will someone set him straight about this??)

Image from wikipedia

We moved in in August and I wanted to give it a few months while we settled to make a decision about whether or not to get a hedgie. Then, one day in October, I was about to leave to go feed my parents’ dogs because they weren’t going to be home until late. Lars came up the back stairs carrying a blue cage over his head.

“OH MY GOD IS THAT A HEDGEHOG??!!”

And it was. The tiniest little baby pokey snuggler there was.

Best surprise two month early birthday gift ever! 

So, enjoy many adorable pictures of Falafel as a baby. Don’t worry- there will be more to come in the future.

Falafel sporting a highly fashionable toilet paper roll hat

She likes to sleep in pockets

oh, so very sleepy

After her first bath

Sniffin’ around the cage

Oh hi there!

Wave hi to the camera!

So small and sleepy and snuggly

Why do hedgehogs have tails? They are so silly looking

Stay tuned for volume 2!

The post It’s hard not to love a hedgehog (vol. 1) appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.