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1849 Views 10 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Artemis-Ichiro, 
B
I brought a 8 months old sow home yesterday. I'm fairly new to this with only tons of research backing me up. She was quite active whilst traveling by car but her activity seemed to drop after I moved her into her new cage.

All she does is dug herself into my parts old sweatshirt and sleep. I'm positive that she is still alive but she barely make sound while sleeping which worries me especially due to how cold my house currently is. I'm running a heater in her room to try to reduce risk of hibernation. I can't tell whether if it is normal or not as I'm told not to disturb her for the first few days.

Any advice would be much appreciated :(

PS. There's no problem with her diet, she ate and drank most of what I offered.
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Lilysmommy
Do you know the temperature in her room? You need a thermometer in her cage so you can make sure the temperature is staying warm & steady enough.

It's normal for hedgehogs to sleep during the day, as they're primarily awake at night. It's also normal for them to not be active while being watched - most won't come out with lights on or anyone moving around the cage. So you may not really actually see her being active, just the aftermath.

Do you have a wheel for her? Can you tell if she ran on that last night? Eating & drinking is good.
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Lilysmommy said:
Do you know the temperature in her room? You need a thermometer in her cage so you can make sure the temperature is staying warm & steady enough.

It's normal for hedgehogs to sleep during the day, as they're primarily awake at night. It's also normal for them to not be active while being watched - most won't come out with lights on or anyone moving around the cage. So you may not really actually see her being active, just the aftermath.

Do you have a wheel for her? Can you tell if she ran on that last night? Eating & drinking is good.
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The temperature is 23 degree celsius or 73.4 fahrenheit

I'm planning to add the wheel tomorrow.

She ate her food but the water bowl remain untouched. Is it normal for a hedgehog to not make any sound at all?
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nikki
23 C is on the low side it should be 24-26 C. You also need a light schedule for him. He needs 12-14 hours of light a day and darkness the rest of the time.
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M
Mine prefers water bottle over bowl she actually knocks over the bowl when she has it
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morgankitten1003 said:
Mine prefers water bottle over bowl she actually knocks over the bowl when she has it
Click to expand...
There are ways to prevent tipping of the bowl and bottles are not safe for hedgehogs.
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J
I'm a new hedgehog owner as well but I can tell you about my similar experience. My little guy was very active the day we brought him home and the day after but then his activity dropped. I took him to the vet. He had mites which may or may not have played a role in his decreased activity but what I noticed about his room was there were nights when my daughter slept with her tv on. I start having her turn it off and his activity has increased. Good luck!
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M
Help!

I brought new hedge home yesterday, his owner said they didn´t have enough time for him, he kept hissing and jumping everytime someone even moved, so I let him settle in his cage. He was active at night, he ate and even played in wheel, but today, I tried to bond, I put him in my lap and let him stay there. He tried to escape very hard, he sneaked under my tshirt and bit me quite lot - twice, but I still tried just to let him settle, sit on my legs... He still shivers and rolls every time I even move my hand, so I just sat and didn´t move...ho jumped of me, run under beh and hide there. I put him out and since then he´s just rolled - I ´m afraid if I scared him or what, he just keeps being in ball even in his shelter in cage, he seems really inactive, he just breathe and rolls. I´m horribly affraid he will hate me and won´t ever unroll again. I put him my tshirt in cage, food, water, but he just lies there rollend into ball, he didn´t even hide into shelter, he just stuffed his head under litter. I read so many forums and even a book, but I don´t know how to aproach him without scaring him even more and I´m really frightened he will die from fear or what.
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Reggiesmama
Artemis-Ichiro said:
There are ways to prevent tipping of the bowl and bottles are not safe for hedgehogs.
Click to expand...
You can glue down the water bowl or somehow to keep him from tipping it over and somehow section it off to keep him from getting shavings in it. Although water bottles are not suggested, my hedgehog has used one since I've gotten him and has done fine.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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nikki
Mariac please start your own thread with your question.
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Reggiesmama said:
Artemis-Ichiro said:
There are ways to prevent tipping of the bowl and bottles are not safe for hedgehogs.
Click to expand...
You can glue down the water bowl or somehow to keep him from tipping it over and somehow section it off to keep him from getting shavings in it. Although water bottles are not suggested, my hedgehog has used one since I've gotten him and has done fine.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
And he'll be fine until something happens, and that is the thing, it can be tomorrow or it can be in a year or maybe nothing happens but is it fair to risk it when there is a better way?

Tongues get caught, teeth chipped (there is a current thread on it), water might stop coming out and you'd have a dehydrated hedgehog and also is an un natural way for them to drink.
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