Meet Some of our Fury Friends
Munchkin one of our 2 Hedgehog's
Hedgehogs get their name from their foraging habits. In the wild, they often root through hedges and undergrowth searching for food while making grunting noises like a pig. Thus the name Hedgehogs!
They are often confused with porcupines because both species have quills, but the two species are not actually related. Hedgehogs and porcupines developed quills independently of each other. Hedgehogs quills are sharp like a needle, where porcupine quills are barbed like a fish hook. Contrary to popular belief, neither species can “shoot” their quills, however, porcupines can release their quills once they have hooked into an attacker (ouch!).
These amazing creatures are immune to some snake and scorpion venom and even some poisonous plants. Hedgehogs can provide themselves with extra protection by performing an act called “self anointing” where they eat these poisonous plants or other smelly things and create a frothy saliva that they vomit all over their spines. This may help hide the hedgehog's scent, or it may give a predator a poisonous shock if they try to attack. It’s also a surprising behavior to observe, especially if the self-annointer in questions is your pet hedgehog!
Hedgehogs mainly stay on the ground, though some can climb trees and are quite good swimmers. While searching for food, they can run 8-12 miles every night! They often run these same distances in captivity on their wheels.
A hedgehog’s nose can move side to side independently of their head to help pinpoint the source of a smell. They have an excellent sense of smell, and can sniff out a worm up to 2 inches underneath the ground! This helps them locate some of their favorite foods which include insects, small mice, snails, lizards, frogs, eggs, and even snakes and scorpions!
Andy and Nancy, our Prairie Dogs
Their vocabulary is more advanced than any other animal language that’s been decoded. To a human ear, prairie dogs’ squeaky calls sound simple and repetitive. But recent research has found that those calls can convey incredibly descriptive details. Prairie dogs can alert one another, for example, that there’s not just a human approaching their burrows, but a tall human wearing the color blue.
Nova, one of our 7 Ferrets
A ferret is a small, furry creature with a cone-shaped nose, long tail and a long, pear-shaped body with short legs and long claws. Ferrets are related to wolverines, ermines, minks Male ferrets are known as hobs and female ferrets are called jills. Ferrets are carnivores, which means they eat only meat.
Pikachu, our Chinchilla
The thick fur that chinchillas boast helps them live in freezing temperatures at elevations of 9,800 to 16,400 feet. While they may be pros at handling temperatures in cold Andes mountains of South America, they can’t survive in temperatures higher than 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which can cause them to suffer from heat stroke.
Midnight, our Gerbil
Gerbils are highly inquisitive, and motivated by food and freedom. By offering the right reward, you can teach your gerbil tricks.
Sugar and Spice, 2 of our 3 Sugar Gliders
Sugar gliders are squirrel-sized arboreal marsupials that inhabit the forests of Australia and New Guinea. They are highly social, living in small colonies or family groups numbering up to seven adults and their offspring. Sugar gliders are largely nocturnal and rarely come to the ground, finding both shelter and food in the trees.
The sugar glider's main distinguishing feature is a soft membrane between its wrists and ankles called a patagium, which allows it to glide from tree to tree as though using a parachute. These “wrist-winged gliders” can float on air up to a distance nearly the width of a football field!
They are excellent “aviators,” thanks to their wide field of vision—and they can triangulate distances and glide ratios by bobbing their head before launch. Once airborne, they steer toward their target by tilting their hands and arms, adjusting the tension in their “wings,” and using their long, flat, bushy tail as a rudder.
While named for their penchant for eating forest sweets like acacia gum, eucalyptus sap, and flower nectar, sugar gliders are actually omnivorous opportunistic feeders, consuming both plant and animal matter. The little sugar glider’s menu choice has a dark side, though. Their appetite for the endangered swift parrot’s nestlings in Tasmania is a grave threat to the bird’s survival there.
Smores, our Holland Lop Rabbit
Rabbits are social lagomorphs (not rodents) who live in the wild with their herds in complex tunnel systems called warrens. Wild rabbits are found all over the world (except in Antarctica).
These furry friends are also a popular domesticated pet and can be litter-box trained (many people let their pet rabbits run free throughout their home!). There are 305 unique domesticated rabbit breeds from Lionheads to Flemish Giants. They’ve exploded in popularity as pets with 2.5 million households own at least one bunny.
Rabbits use their large back feet to jump up to three feet in the air! When excited, they use their big feet and powerful legs to leap, twist, and kick in the air to perform an adorable move called a “binky”. Their eyes, positioned on the side of their heads, give them almost 360-degree vision, so they can see in all directions at the same time to keep an eye out for predators or their next tasty snack.
Pom Pom, our English Lop Rabbit
Rabbits have ears that act as built-in air conditioners! Rabbits do not sweat like us so they use their ears to help cool them off. When it is hot, they circulate extra blood through their ears where the skin is thin. Then, they angle their ears into the wind where the heat can radiate away as the wind blows. Because they are so big, their ears help funnel sound towards their eardrum, so they have great hearing. Each ear acts like a satellite dish rotating up to 180 degrees, so they can easily find the source of a sound and stay alert
Daisy, one of our 5 hamsters
Daisy is a Russian Dwarf Hamster and an excellent escape artist and ball truck runner.
Checkers, one of our Guinea Pigs
Guinea pigs are adorably social rodents who make “weet weet,” chirping and purring noises to communicate with each other and the humans who care for them. We love the chorus of “weet weets!” that greet us when we enter our guinea pig house. When guinea pigs are particularly excited, they make quick hopping movements called “popcorning,” it’s so cute!
Guinea pigs were native to South America but after years of being hunted for pets and food, they no longer exist in the wild. Guinea pigs have become very popular household pets. Queen Elizabeth I, President Theodore Roosevelt, and even Princess Diana had pet guinea pigs!
Alaska, one of our Guinea Pigs
Guinea pigs live 5-8 years and are incredible swimmers, some have been known to swim for up to 5 hours at a time. Wild guinea pigs traveled in herds (we would LOVE to see a wild guinea pig herd running by!) made up of males (boars), females (sows), and young guinea pigs (pups). In the wild, they wouldn’t dig burrows but preferred to find shelter in other animal’s burrows, crevices, and small caves.
Because they are prey animals, they have several evolutionary adaptations that assist them. A guinea pig pup can run when they’re 3 hours old, helping them to evade predators at a young age. They also sleep in short 4-10 minute bursts for a total of 4 hours a day, this allows them to constantly be aware of their surroundings. Guinea pigs' teeth grow continuously throughout their lives! In order to keep their teeth filed down, they adapted to gnaw and chew on wood, their food and pretty much everything else around them.
Wigasis, one of our Guinea Pigs
These little rodents were first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean Region of South America. There are actually guinea pig enclosures built into many of the ancient ruins in South America! Make sure to look for them if you go visit. Guinea pigs can not make their own Vitamin C. Because of this evolutionary quirk they share with humans (we don’t make our own Vitamin C either!) they were frequently used as experimental subjects in the 19th and 20th centuries, resulting in the epithet “guinea pig” for a test subject.
Guinea pigs love to cuddle and be social and even talk with their owners! They can learn to recognize their owner by sight and will greet you with excited “weet weet!” noises, especially when it’s time for them to eat. Guinea pigs need a variety of fruits and vegetables in addition to their pellet food and a continuous amount of hay (continuous access to hay is VERY important to help keep their teeth filed down). Always check if a guinea pig can eat a specific type of fruit or vegetable before giving it to them. Guinea pigs need a large enclosure (7 square feet of space is recommended), are very social and do best when living with at least one other guinea pig of the same sex. We make sure our guinea pigs get lots of outdoor play time (in enclosed play areas) and get lots of new toys and experiences every day through our enrichment programs.