Hello! I got my first hedgehog yesterday after doing all the research. He was fine last night, running around and exploring. He was eating and drinking and seemed relatively happy. But he's been sleeping in a ball all day today. He moved positions when I went to class, but besides that he's just been curled in a ball. If I get too close he hisses and moves around a little but thats it. Since I've only had him a day i'm wondering if he's just sleeping a lot due to the stress and only being 9 weeks old, or if he's possibly trying to hibernate.
If he's hissing at you then he's not hibernating. Do you have a heat set up for the cage and a thermometer in it to check the temperature? Both of these things are needed to keep your hedgehog healthy and to prevent a hibernation attempt.
I don't have a heater yet. The breeder I bought him from never used them so I wanted to see if he would be okay at the 73 degrees we keep the house at. The issue is a have a plastic tub, and I've read that you can't use ceramic heaters. I don't know what my other options would be.
I keep my hedgie in a tub too. I keep him in my office which means he has his own room. I have a thermometer in the room next to his tub which I monitor, if I feel the temperature dropping and the thermometer confirms it, I close his door and put his heater on. He has an oil heater with built in thermostat so the room doesn't overheat.
Could he just be sleeping a lot due to the stress of a new environment? I know he was up and walking around during the night because some of his food was gone and the wheel was used. When I woke up though he was back to sleeping in the same spot.
My hedgie is only awake from about 7pm, I don't see him during the day at all unless I wake him up to clean his den or give him a bath. It's natural for a nocturnal animal to sleep during the day.
Yeah I was awake doing work until 1am though and he was still asleep. When I woke at 8am he was in his same spot. He was awake though just balled up burrowed under his wheel.
Bramble only comes out when his light is off and it's reasonably dark. If he's in the vicinity of his wheel he crouches under it if I switch his light on but he sleeps in his cave otherwise. Is it perhaps not light that's bugging your little one?
It could be the light. He's still new so I'm going to wait a day to handle him, but tomorrow ill turn the lights off earlier in the night and see if that works. Thank you
I got my hedgehog a couple weeks ago this morning I woke up and checked on her got her out for a few minutes and noticed that she was taking more time to uncurl and when she did he belly was cool not cold but cool I wrapped a warm shirt around her and held her after a little bit she wanted to walk around so I let her she walked completely fine but her belly was still cool I put a heating blanket under her cage and a warm water bottle with her and her belly feels warmer then it did this morning but not really warm she is hissing at me when I get close to her as usual so she is acting herself now but can I do anything else to help her and btw I keep the room at a constant temp of 70f and she has been fine until now but I read me having the light off yesterday and just using the light outside could of caused it.
I got my hedgehog a couple weeks ago this morning I woke up and checked on her got her out for a few minutes and noticed that she was taking more time to uncurl and when she did he belly was cool not cold but cool I wrapped a warm shirt around her and held her after a little bit she wanted to walk around so I let her she walked completely fine but her belly was still cool I put a heating blanket under her cage and a warm water bottle with her and her belly feels warmer then it did this morning but not really warm she is hissing at me when I get close to her as usual so she is acting herself now but can I do anything else to help her and btw I keep the room at a constant temp of 70f and she has been fine until now but I read me having the light off yesterday and just using the light outside could of caused it.
No I use a space heater and I had it set at 70 because she seemed comfortable and she stayed warm and I turn the light on between 730-745 and off around 530-600 because she gets up to eat but the day before it happened I just used the natural light because I was going to be gone all day
Natural light isn't going to cut it. You need an artificial light source. And the light schedule must be consistent of 12-14 hours everyday. 70 is little bit too low. Do you have a thermometer in the cage itself? It's super important to know the temperature of the cage.
They need 12-14 hours of direct light each day. You're only giving your hedgehog 10 hours and that's not enough.
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