[christine.]

A few days after getting my beautiful 8-9 week old hedgie I put a makeshift litter pan in her cage out of a cut up popcorn box and paper towel lining it, i put in in one of the 2 corners that she uses the most for those activities, after just 2 days i went to find all of her pee in it, and 1 out of 2 poops in there! i was so excited thinking i was off to a good start!

that was yesterday

today i woke up, and the only thing that i could think to say was 'THERE IS S**T EVERYWHERE' apparently she pooped on her wheel, then ran on it, and it litterally had a coating of poo all over the entire wheel, some on the floor, and some on the wall of the cage! (its solid plastic for a few inches up then caging on all sides)

Half the reason im posting this is because i am sure most of you have had similar lovely experiences, and i just loved speed scrubbing my wheel before going to work

and the other reason is my slight hope that i can do something to help the process along, i really dont want to be dealing with that all of the time! (i put a little bit of her poop in the box to try and get her to take the hint)

 

[Shelbys Mom]

Unfortunately most Hedgies poop on their wheel
So your pretty much stuck with a poopy wheel every morning
To keep the cage a little cleaner you can put a litter pan (small cookie sheet works) under the wheel. Or you can put a paper towel under the front of the wheel so it will catch most of the run off. And with the litter pan under the wheel they can sort of "wipe" their feet off as their walking away from the wheel.

 

[hedgewawa]

I was going to actually post on this subject today. I have to say that after getting my two hedgehogs I think that anyone getting a pet should ask what kind of poop they have before they get them.

I read all around HHC and I did read some of the poop/wheel threads but even with that input it was a big shock :shock: :shock: to me to find a coating of poop/urin all over the wheel. Then to have TOOTHPASTE consistancy poop come out of the hedgehog while you are holding it or bathing it is quite an experience for a new owner.

I was thinking/hoping for pellets, like hamsters or GP pellets, or tiny mice poopies. LOL However, as you can see by the tag line on my posts I think that their cuteness does outweigh their poopness. I am also looking forward to the day when they are older and the pooping gets less as I have been told it does.

This might help you:

I have a CWS wheel and it is easy to clean. I have gotten my wheel and cage cleaning down to one hour for both hedgehogs including changeing water and food and checking their feet. I clean both wheels and cages in the evening before the hedgehogs wake up. I put the wheel in the shower and then spray it with a commercial cage spray, I let that sit while I change cage liners. Then I put on disposable rubber gloves and wipe the wheels off with paper towels. I then turn on the shower and let it run. That rinses the wheel of any chemicals. Any urin or specks of poop I missed go right down the drain too. I have a plastic bag ready for the dirty paper towels and the used gloves.

This is kind of unpleasant. But I think having the hedgehogs in my life is worth it.

 

[christine.]

Ya it was definately not fun. the poop was like it was cooked on. oh well every other moment with her is fun

 

[hedgewawa]

Yup, cooked on. Sometimes in the morning I ask myself how one small animal can make such a mess.

My chihuahuas use pee pee pads when I am at work. Sometimes I come home and it looks like they invited other dogs over to add to the poop. LOL

 

[hedgielover]

Some wheels are harder to clean than others. I had a Silent Spinner for a while but found out that they can be dangerous and I found it really difficult to clean. I relpaced it with a flying saucer and find that much easier. To get rid of th poop around the cage I've seen people extend liners up the wall (fasenting them with velcro or to the part where the bars start) This makes it easier to clean. I put smaller liner scraps in high trafic areas.

I also find soaking in dish soap and water really helps the whel come clean.

 

[LizardGirl]

I use the poop factor as a great way of discouraging people (that I know wouldn't make good owners) from getting a hedgie. :lol:

 

[Baylee2011]

LMAO omg that is soo funny!! do they have little pellet like poops?

 

[Nate1232]

That was the worst thing for me, there was poop everywhere because of that darn wheel! So I went to the dollar store and bought a couple tin cookie trays with low edges and put in some non clumping kitty litter. Put under the wheel, theres almost NO poop anywhere else! Theres the odd 1 or 2 in a funny spot but the majority gets caught

 

[katdoug]

I find this funny - Reina, my hedgie, has one of the best poop/pee rituals out of all the pets ive had! I've only had her a week, though, so we'll see how it goes

I had a rabbit who basically pooped little hay balls. They were easy to pick up, and she was more or less litter trained. But She'd poop in her litter box, then RACE out, spreading poop everyyyyywhere. She'd also sit in her box and poop all day, and have a GIANT poop ball stuck to her that was tough to get off. Her pee also was very, very stinky. I had budgies that pooped anywhere and everywhere (mid-flight, on your head, on the walls..)

I wake Miss Reina up (and make sure she's actually awake or she'll fall back asleep!) then put her immediately into her litter box. She picked up on it very quickly. If she gets squirmy when I'm holding her, I'll plop her back in the box and she usually poops right away. She also poops A LOT in her wheel (made from a home hardware bucket) every night, but it's contained and easy to clean off with a little soaking in soapy water. It also smells much better than other pet's poop. Such a pleasant surprise!

 

[lehaley]

I'm a big fan of layering 4 paper towels directly under Felix's wheel. Unfortunately, he's recently developed a habit of pooping behind the wheel and directly ON the walls of his cage. I've been waking up to poop SMEARS. I'm going to try putting the paper towels behind the wheel and up the base of the cage a little bit and see if that makes my clean-up a little less horrifying.