The Mama’s hair tasted so good I just had to anoint with it. I had a little chew on her hair while she laid her head down next to me on the desk. Then lick, lick, lick… I added her smell to mine by licking myself with it.
It’s called “anointing” and It’s just saliva basically, mixed with whatever we chewed or licked last. Humans don’t know for sure why we do it (and we’ll never tell 
?).
A few theories as to why hedgehogs anoint:
- we find a new smell in the environment and need to camouflage our own scent with the new smell for safety so we anoint with the new smell,
- we find a smell we LIKE and want to smell like it so we anoint with it,
- we anoint with something unfamiliar to possibly add some toxicity to our spines as another layer of deterrent from predators and parasites.
Some hedgies anoint all the time. Some hardly ever anoint. It’s just a funny Hedgehog thing. Lol.
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