[KathyS]

Hi,
Woke up to a very cold morning, nothing new here in MT. BUT, found Puck not huffing and cussing at us...not him at all. He's still getting use to us and always gives us an earful first thing in the AM.
He had crawled into a tissue box he plays with and went to sleep...without his blankie. Also, we had moved his cage to a stand along an external wall. That made his cage cooler than it normally is. Doh! :roll:
He was fairly tightly balled and while breathing quickly, he was not himself. I took a warmed Snugglesafe and wrapped it, placed him on top in his blanket and within 5 mintues he was giving us heck.
A few mealworms and a dab of cat food later he was sleeping normally. Later I found him with his butt hanging out of the covers, splatted with a poop dangling. Great, I'm thinking he was overheated...no, just sleepy and grumpy when I moved him.
He had been traveling very far and late on his wheel when I went to bed at 1:30 AM. I'm thinking he was so tired that he fell asleep playing in his tissue box.
That has been removed, had to tear it open to get him out. :?
I'm thinking preventative heat when we get our super cold temps, but how about him wanting to hibernate again? Is it fairly normal. Or is it only when the temp or light is not right? :?:

 

[silvercat]

Hibernation is not something you want to happen as it can be fatal if the hedgie doesn't come out of it. Once you have a hibernation attempt, they are more likely to try again. & it does sound like an attempt.

Best thing to do in a hibernation attempt is to put on a t-shirt & a sweatshirt & then put your hedgie under the sweatshirt so they slowly warm back up using your body heat. You shouldn't leave a hedgehog unattended on a heating surface. An estivation (is this the correct term?) can be equally dangerous - which is when the hedgehog gets too hot & 'splats' unresponsive.

As for preventing reoccurances, you want to maintain your hedgehogs cage at a constant temperature between 22 & 30 *C (give or take for the hog). Use the search function, someone recently posted a really great thread on how to heat your hedgehogs cage & the different heating options. Myself, I have a digital thermometer, a ceramic heat emitter and a thermostat.

 

[KathyS]

Thanks, Silvercat! We're going to work on keeping the temp as even as possible.
Last night I heated the Snugglesafe and placed it vertically against the cage wall, behind his cubby. It kept the air around him warm, but didn't over heat him by being right under him. I woke to find my normally disgruntled Puck!

 

[silvercat]

Nice. A lot of people will use the snuggle safe overnight or during the day, positioned as you did as a back up in case of power outages. I've done it myself on particularly stormy days.