COLOURS

 

The African pygmy hedgehog comes in a variety of colours, here I will try and explain the basics.
The hedgehogs we keep as pets come from the cross breeding of the white bellied hedgehog and the Algerian hedgehog, but they still keep some of their original charactoristics.

Salt and pepper

Quills are banded by black they have a black mask, eyes, ears and nose. The skin on the shoulders is black and there is mottling on the belly

Grey

Quills are banded by black with a rust edge, they have a black mask , eyes, ears and nose. They skin on the shoulders is dark grey and they can have mottling on the belly.

Chocolate

Quills are banded by dark brown with rusty edges, they have a dark brown mask, the eyes are black. Nose is liver and skin on the shoulders is light grey.

Brown

Quills are banded by light cinnamon brown, They have a brown mask, the eyes are black . The nose is liver and the skin on the shoulders is pink mottled by grey.

Cinnamon

Quills are banded by light cinnamon brown. They have no mask, the nose is liver mottled with pink. The eyes are black with a grey outer rim and the skin on the shoulders is pink.

Cinnicot

Quills are banded by half cinnamon brown and half pale orange beige. They have no mask, the nose is pink and liver mottled. The eyes are black with grey outer rim, and skin on the shoulders is pink. The cinnicot can also have red eyes.

Apricot

Quills are banded by pale orange beige. The eyes are red and the nose and ears are pink. Skin over the shoulders is pink.

Albino

Quills are all white. They have no mask. Eyes, nose and ears are pink, and skin on the shoulders is pink. The albino has a total lack of pigmentation.

They are also available in snowflake colours, these are based on the standard colours but between 30% and 70% of the quills are solid white.

Silver - Salt and pepper snowflake

Charcoal - Grey snowflake

Chocolate chip - Chocolate snowflake

Brown snowflake

Cinnamon snowflake

Cinnicot snowflake

Apricot snowflake

Black eyed white

these have at least 95% white quills, nose, eyes, and ears are black. The skin on the shoulders is black.

Pinto

The pinto is a pattern rather than a colour. It can occur in any coloured hedgehog. There are patches which have a total lack of pigmentation where the quills are white and skin underneath is pink. They are only just starting to appear in the UK and the patches are only small at present.

Algerian colours

The algerian colours have cream quills banded by colour, rather than the white of the white bellied hedgehogs. They usually have mottling of the belly and cheek patches.