Hedgehog Family Adorably Eats Meal Together

Check out these five cute hedgehogs as they settle down for dinner. Cuteness overload! These tiny spiky creatures may be the cutest little things while they eat they food with perfect politeness! Watch as they munch away adorably!Show more

With five bowls of food set out for five tiny hedgehogs, four of them crowd around one bowl, sharing their meal. The one who is the tiniest of them all sits alone, enjoying his privacy as he eats. The bowls are all color coded per pet, but they prefer to stay by one another, eating in each others company.

The hedgehog is a small and spiny mammal native to parts of Europe, Asia and Africa and New Zealand. There are seventeen different species of hedgehogs. Their ancestry goes far back, having been named the hedgehog around the year 1450, deriving from the look of hedgerows on their backs and the pig like snout, making them look like a hog. Like many of the ancient mammals, they have adapted to a nocturnal way of life, coming out mainly at night and sleeping throughout the day.

Hedgehogs are recognized by their spiny bodies, made up of hairs that are made stiff with keratin. These spines are not poisonous or barbed like those of a porcupine, and they do not easily detach from the hedgehog’s body. However, like a baby that loses baby teeth, a young hedgehog’s spine will fall out to be replaced by an adult spine. When this happens, it is called “quilling”. This can also happen when the animal is under extreme stress.

These small creatures all have the ability to roll up into a small, tight ball when threatened and as a defence, stick their spines straight outwards when balled, using two large muscles in their backs to control the direction of the spines. When rolled into a ball, this protects their tiny faces, feet and belly which are tucked away. Hedgehogs use this defence method against common predators like owls, ferrets, fox and wolves.

Hedgehogs, being nocturnal, will spend most of their day sleeping under bushes, in long grass, under rocks and most commonly in dens that have been dug deep into the ground. All species of hedgehog have the ability to hibernate during winter months, although not all of them do. It all depends on the temperature, species and abundance of food source.

The cute little animals are very vocal and communicate with each other through various types of grunts, snuffles and squeals. The sounds they make depend on the species of hedgehog and with different regions and types of mammal; the sounds they make will differ.

Hedgehogs are omnivores and feed on small types of insects, snails, frogs, toads, snakes, bird eggs, mushrooms, grass roots, berries, melons and even love watermelon. This makes us wonder what these five little guys are enjoying in their bowls for dinner. Either way they are incredible cute to watch as they stick their heads in their bowls and gobble up whatever it is that they are eating.

Have you ever seen a hedgehog eat dinner? Tell us about it in the comments!