Four-toed Hedgehog - Reproduction

Reproduction

Female four-toed hedgehogs do not go into estrus during any particular season, and are fertile throughout the year, although mating is most common during the rainy season, when food is most abundant. The female typically gives birth to a single litter each year, which may contain from two to ten pups, with four or five being most typical. Males approach the female and court her with high pitched vocalizations. Ovulation is induced, occurring only in the presence of a male, normally within 24 hours of mating.

Gestation lasts thirty to forty days, and the mother gives birth in a well-lined nest cavity, such as an abandoned rodent burrow. The young are covered in a thin membrane to protect the mother from their already present spines, though it takes them some time to gain control over the muscles that move them. At birth, the young weigh about 10 grams (0.35 oz), and are blind and helpless, with only soft spines and no other fur. The spines stiffen within a few hours, and further spines emerge over the first few days of life as the skin, initially swollen and edematous, begins to dry and contract.

The eyes open at fifteen days, when the young begin to become more active. The deciduous teeth appear at about three weeks, with the permanent teeth following at seven to nine weeks. The young are weaned by six weeks and leave the mother not long after. They can become sexually mature at two to three months of age, although in the wild they will not typically breed during the first year of life.

In the wild, four-toed hedgehogs live for no more than about three years, but they have lived up to ten years in captivity.