1st time owner, lost baby hedgie!

[etoombs]

It's been almost 1 week and we still haven't found her. I've cranked up the heat in my house to 75 degrees. I have set food out, complete with mealworms to entice her. I walked around a little after midnight last night to see if I could hear her. Nothing. I did notice that some of the food and almost all of the water that had been untouched Wednesday, had changed. Giving me hope that she is eating, she is just really good at hiding. Our house is 4k sqft.....so I'm having a really hard time narrowing it down to one area. All of the activity we've seen seems to be in the kitchen area. I've seen droppings under the fridge, so I've taken the vent cover off and set up a shoe box trap outside to try to encourage her into the shoebox. I've also slid a coat hanger underneath to try to get some movement...nothing. We are genuinely beginning to worry. It seems that every other day though, there will be some kind of change to give us hope. To answer the cage question...the cage was a loaner from the classroom. We got the hedgehog from my daughters small animal science class at her HS where they breed them. We had not planned on getting one, so the teacher sent her home with a cage from class. The bar spacing was a little too much and she got out during the night. I since have bought a cage with very tight spacing so that when we find her, she has what she needs.

The teacher also told us not to worry, that she would eventually come out. We are losing the bonding time and I'm worried she won't be very friendly. Any similar situations or advice????

[belties]

I would maybe try sitting in the dark after everything gets quiet for a couple of hours with a small flashlight with a red lens (red plastic bag over the end works good) to watch for her. The red light will not scare most nocturnal animals.Our little one isn't active all night .She will eat ,run ,and then sleep for an hour or so and then do it all again several times a night.It may take a couple of hours but she will be moving some time.I liked the duct tape idea but I would ad a little jingle bell to the end of each piece so you could tell right away if she gets caught.Good luck we are all hoping you find her .We know how stressful missing pets can be.

[Yukidama's mama]

Sorry to hear she is still missing, it's a good sign to see some of the food and water gone though. Are you keeping your heating on during the night too? This might encourage her to be more active. My boy usually becomes active not long after lights go out. Definitely think you're going to have to stay up for at least an hour after you turn lights off. Even just turn them all off from early evening (once it's completely night time) and like the other poster said, use a small torch to search for her. It's probably best to keep still though and wait for her to come where the food is setup, so your movement doesn't scare her off.

How about also buying some night cameras and setting them up in the areas where you've found activity to see where she is disappearing too afterwards? A long shot but might help give more direction to where she is hiding (you could use them afterwards on her cage like some people have anyways). I'd probably buy night vision goggles if it was me lol

Hoping she appears soon, keep us posted.

[nikki]

I would start at the top of the house and check every room one by one. Look in all drawers, closets, corners and boxes or containers and under and in every piece if furniture. Once done a room close the door and put a towel or something similar under the door and move me to the next room. Once you are done one floor block off the door way with something solid. Keep each floor blocked off so you are sure she can't get back there. This way you can narrow the search to one floor.

[Askeptosaurus]

Try leaving a pile of clothes you've recently worn next to the food and hope she decides to hide in it after eating. Do you have a sleeping bag? You could camp out in the room near the food and wait to hear eating.

[Shabba]

My first post and I'm interested to see if there is an update on this?