Am I doing something wrong?

[PennyRosa]

I got Penny in January when she was about 4 months old. Since then, I've built her a beautiful C and C cage, built her a bucket wheel, control her heat and light and feed her a balanced mix of premium cat food.

She is active (as shown by her disgusting wheel every morning) and seems to enjoy her cage.

Since I've got her, I've spent at least a half hour a day with her, mostly chilling with her on a blanket while I watch tv/Netflix. She is still super huffy and I can tell she doesn't enjoy being out. Whenever I pick her up, she tries to jump out of my hands as quickly as possible.

I also have a play pen that I sometimes put her in, but she doesn't really like toys aside from her wheel.

Is this just her personality? I'm okay if that's it, I just want to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to make her a happy hog even if that means that I might not be her favorite person. Suggestions?

Thanks!

[gracefulchaos01]

She may just be an explorer. I do have a question though. When you have her out is she out out or do you have a snuggle sack she can hide in? The reason I ask is because sometimes my hedgies prefer to be out, in a sack. Sometimes they just prefer to be out out. It depends on the hedgehog, time of day/evening, phase of the moon, amount of birds in the trees outside and various other hedgehog reasonings that evade me.
Also, if you have it, maybe a little more time. I know I'm one to talk, but when I have extra time I do like to pick a hedgie and give it to them. Extra cuddles and sack time and pen time if that is their thing. It seems to be working. Mostly

[PennyRosa]

I definitely do give her more time most days. I'm a teacher so it definitely depends but most days it is at least an hour.

I always bring her out with a blanket so she usually crawls around on that/cuddles/sleeps.

[PennyRosa]

She doesn't really like cuddle sacks/bags regardless of what size I make them. I'm not sure why.

Her favorite is to liner dive, or she will sleep in her tree trunk igloo.

[gracefulchaos01]

~nodnod~ it doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. Not that I can see anyway. The only other thing I could suggest, as corny as it sounds, is to try to find her "love language" as it were.
Sebastian enjoys full hand coverage with her cuddles and a snuggle sack nearby or over her.
Gabriel loves cuddles but also enjoys playing attack the fleece and tug.
Beauregard enjoys cuddling into my hair when he wants to cuddle.
Tiberius enjoys cuddling occasionally but usually he prefers a quick cuddle and a long run in the pen and a treat at the end.
I'm still working on the other 2.

Ya, I just read that book and realized all of my pets have their own favorite way of expressing themselves as well as receiving affection.