Cruel to be kind?!

[Tasha]

Hi everyone

Lately my Henry has decided not to bother getting up at night except to eat, drink, poop and maybe step onto his wheel but not use it. This is unlike him as up until a month ago he was a runner. Anyway, the other night i accidentally forgot to put his snuggle sack that he sleeps under into his igloo after cleaning it. The next morning his wheels were covered and had obviously been put to good use, Great i thought, thinking he'd got back to normal but not connecting it to the missing blanket. Blanket back in, the next night he once again he doesn't bother to do anything except eat, poop, drink & sleep. So as an experiment i took his blanket out again last night and replaced with some cut up fleece and what do you know, really messy wheels that have been well and truly used!

So (sorry this is dragged out) do i remove the blanket for a week or so knowing he's probably not getting very comfortable but getting the exercise he needs, or put it back because he loves it so much?! He hates me anyway so i doubt this will have much effect our relationship.

[hedgielover]

With the blanket out I would be worried that he is just running because he is stressed. I don't know if that makes sense. If he used to run with his blanket in the cage then something has probably changed to make him want to sleep more. Heat, light source, something else in the environment. If none of that has changed then maybe there is something medically wrong. Take him to the vet. Good luck.

[Tasha]

I was worried he might be running through not being happy, but he's always had the blanket and used to run. Nothing has changed environment wise but he recently started losing alot of quills again. Because of this he has only recently been to the vet with nothing seeming to be wrong. The quill loss seems to be slowing down again though which is good.

Aargghh! I love my baby to bits but he's a constant worry!

[mkmanuel]

How old is he? It may be that he's quilling and that's the only issue.

[Tasha]

He's over a year and a half old. He went through what seemed to be a growth spurt at a year so put down last lot of quill loss to that. They don't go through seasonal quilling do they?

[hedgielover]

Some hedgehogs seems to loose quills with the seasons. Quigley started loosing more than normal at the start of the winter. The vet said that he sees lots of mild illness and weird quill loss when the winter starts. I don't know it happens in the spring too.