Haha yeah i was surprised there were four of them, lol. Our earlier litters were 2 and 3, so i expected 2 or so from her first litter :P But now there are 4!
They are born with quills, but they lie beneath a thin layer of skin, so they won't bother mommy in labor :P After a few hours the layer of skin will dry out and fall of (mom will eat it so predators won't smell them and for some extra energie as well). The first baby quills are indeed white and after a day or two they will fall out. New, bigger and stronger quills will come in return which are mostly colored. The color keeps changing until they're 9 weeks old and they get their "teen-shedding" as i call it :P But they can move out at 8 weeks, so for breeders, giving them a color is always a big guess. I've learned to guesss colors pretty early by breeding rodents, so that really is a big advantage, but still it's pretty hard to say sometimes.
They will bother eachother with their quills, but since they're quite soft, it doesn't hurt (quills don't hurt anyway, they feel kind of like putting a skewer against your hand).
