Room Temperature?

[Lansakudo]

Our apartment's temperature rangers from 18-23 C

We have a portable heater and he has as much fleece as he could possibly need

But Obviously, the heater doesnt run all the time

is it more damaging to change the temperature all the time suddenly with the heater, or to keep it at the lower temperature its always at?

[Artemis-Ichiro]

It's better it you have the heater on a thermostat so the temperature is constant, the fluctuation or low temperature could end with a hibernation attempt even if he has been fine for a long time.

[nikki]

Neither of those options are good. You need a heat source that will hold the temperature steady at about 24-26C. Both low temperatures and fluctuating temperatures can cause a hibernation attempt.

[Lansakudo]

well yes but our apartment cant get to that temperature

[Artemis-Ichiro]

The cage needs to be at that termperature not your apartment. If you cannot provide the right environment for a pet you should not have it.

[nikki]

You need to get a heating set up for the cage then. You can use something like a CHE to warm the cage and not the room. If you read through the housing section you'll see a thread about heating your cage.

[Lansakudo]

how can a CHE only heat a cage, it will end up heating a large area. but no one can afford to run a CHE all day thats just insane

[Artemis-Ichiro]

I already told
You to run the heater with a thermostat. Then you mistnjave a CHE with a thermostat since that device controls the temperature and makes it turn on and off according to the cage's needs and is the least expensive way.

And again, if providing the right environment for a pet is out of your means then you need to rehome him because it's not fair to make it suffer because you made an impulse buy.

[twobytwopets]

You have two options for heat.

A space heater.
It will only heat so much of area. Things like insulative value, square footage, and "openness" will effect the effectiveness.
A larger enclosed room will not heat as well as a smaller enclosed room.
A room with open doorways and walkways between other rooms will not heat as well as a room with the same area but fully enclosed.
A room that isn't well insulated doesn't heat well. Also "stuff" adds insulation to a room.
Some rooms may need more than one space heater to compensate for any of those issues. Or other adjustments need made like additional insulation, enclosing the space, or moving to a smaller room.
All those things can be a lot of work, which is why a CHE is the generally preferred heating method.

CHE
With a proper CHE set up, you have all the above issues but on a much smaller scale and much easier to make the necessary adjustments.
You may need to make thermostat adjustments. You may need to insulate the cage better. You may need to add additional CHEs.
Think of a food warming light in a restaurant. The restaurant isn't 100-some degrees, but under that light it is. A CHE works in the same way. Except we use a thermostat to stop it from going to high temperatures, because hedgehogs aren't food that is required to be kept at a high temperature range.

[nikki]

If you can't provide proper living conditions, ie. heat, then you shouldn't have the animal. CHE's use very little power and can heat a cage properly if the right size is used and it's attached to a thermostat. That's what other responsible hedgehog owners do.