Litter Training

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Litter training
1. Hedgie will always outsmart you; prepare for the unexpected
2. Set aside an area near the wheel for pottying. Most will potty on the wheel, so you can extend that potty zone into a bigger litter area right in front of the wheel. However, if hedgie has alredy selected a spot (like behid the wheel), then go with it. Make that the official potty area instead of "fighting" to move the potty area elsewhere. Only bother trying to move the potty area if it's in a bad spot like near or in the food/water dishes.
3. In the designated area, use something other than what you're using everywhere else in the cage. For example, if you're using fleece liners for the rest of the cage, use paper towels in the litter box.
4. When you find messies outside the litter box, clean up the pee and move some of the poop to the litter box. You don't want mounds of the stuff in there, just enough to hint "hey, poop goes here!"
5. When you're playing with hedgie and s/he gets that "I've gotta go" look - either the tail popped out and/or the wide legged stance, set hedgie in the litter bin to go.
6. Remind yourself: some hedgies get it, some don't, yet others seem to get it, but decide it's just not their thing. So stay nice and consistent with how you handle things... we're talking weeks/months here. Also, some get it as babies, then grow older and seem to forget, so you may need a few rounds of training.
Good luck!
 
Oh my! Miss Kay was so not feeling the litter! Actually I'm not sure if she was mad or just really really excited to have something to dig in :) I put the little thing in there, and as soon as I sat it down she came running out of her igloo and dug every single piece of little out! She was crazed! But it was so funny :) I put some more in there and a couple of her poo's, and this afternoon when we got home there was a little more in there! Yea!
 
Hahaha... the first part of your post reminds me of Satin. On her own, she almost never used her litter bin for pottying. She did for a bit as a baby, then decided she'd just rather use her wheel. She then used her litter box to run through, play with the litter, burrow and play in the Carefresh. Boy, was that stuff messy. In time, I gave up on her using the litter box as a potty in her cage. We'd bring it out during playtime and have her use it when she was out with us. But, on special occasions (eg, birthday, half-birthday, Christmas, etc...), I'd fill it back up with Carefresh and let her romp around.

Congrats to Miss Kay on actually using it as a potty place!
 
Hey there... what do you guys use as litter?

A paper towel in a small bin for those that will actually use a litter box. But I've decided putting down a square or rectangle of scrap fleece under the wheel is just as good. Bella poops & pees behind her wheel, so I put the fleece wheel-mat behind her wheel. Marlee poops on the wheel and pees in front of it, so I put her fleece wheel-mat in front of her wheel. I change both in the mornings.
 
Back
Top