2 Year Old Quill Loss

Hello everyone! I am a new hedgehog owner that recently adopted a 2-year-old hedgie. Ive had him for about a week and I am new to hedgehog health information. The girl I adopted him from used to be a breeder and is going away to vet school and needed to find him a home. With that being said, I have noticed since having him that he has been losing a few quills a day. I usually find one or two left behind when I take him out to play. I also noticed he itches himself when he gets up and figured that was normal behavior. He also appears to be pretty flaky (dead skin) and I've treated him with olive oil. There doesn't appear to be anything moving around on him. I read up on mites and it appears they're pretty common in litters and what not but this guy has been by himself for quite some time. I'm unsure if he is balding/has bald spots and took some photos. Is this normal for the hedgie to look like on his back? It's more prevalent when he rolls into his ball. I get a little overly cautious with my pets and wanted to see if this was something that happens with older hedgehogs or if this is what they usually look like. Thank you all for you time! I attached photos for viewing

*It appears I cannot post images :(

Relative newbie here too, but sounds like the kid needs a bath.


Plastic Curver box (or similar)
Inch or two of warmish water
Drop of baby oil
Silicone pastry brush over the quills (thanks so much to Heather for this tip!)
2 mins TLC
Towel
Hug
Mealy or two


Sorted our Colin right out when he was quilling.

I actually just gave him a bath a few days ago. Not as complex as you listed but I made sure I used an aloe infused gentle soap. Is it possible the quill loss is stress induced? Do they grow back at this age?

The soap may have dried out his skin a little. Aveeno oil is often used by members here to mix in with the bath water to moisturise their skin. I think quills do grow back because I have seen rescue stories where hogs had bald patches and they grew back. Someone on here mentioned a few days ago that their washing powder they used to wash their hogs things with irritated their hogs skin and made quills fall out. Maybe it could be washing powder irritation? Your hog could stop losing quills soon, as you said it could be a stress thing so maybe just wait a few days and if it continues then change washing powder or give the hog another bath with baby oil or aveeno oil.

it does sound like his skin needs a bit of tlc if its a bit dry but its relatively straight forward to sort out usually - an aveeno oil bath as suggested or a bit of vit e oil directly on the skin or a drop of olive oil on his food also - it could also be central heating related - one of mine sufferes terribly in winter with his skin and the only thing my vet and I can put it down to is that he's sensitive to the drying effect central heating has on skin - if it doesnt improve with the above interventions then you might want to consider treating for mites just in case as you cant see burrowing mites and stress can bring on a bloom

otherwise re: quill loss - its perfectly normal for a hog to lose 1-2 quills as they shed them throughout their life time and yes they grow back providing that theres no underlying issues - its like us humans - we shed our hair throughout our lives and hogs are the same with both quills and their belly fur but if you are noticing bald patches etc then theres an underlying issue as they shouldnt go bald - sometimes if the hog is a little overwieght when they ball you can sometimes see skin through the quills but it isnt bald - if you get what I mean