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Bairnns

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Southern California
So we've been home with Willow (9 mos old) a week and a half. We are enjoying her a lot! She is curious and friendly. We take her out a few times a day and she walks around the coffee table, checking in with whatever human is watching her every few minutes. We take out her wheel and she seems to love it. She is pretty easy to keep clean as each time she is out and moving she poops and pees, and there is not a whole lot of poop in her cage!

But it seems this is the only time she is active! I've never seen her run in the wheel in her cage. I stay up till at least 11, and last night I fell asleep on the sofa then woke at 2:30 am, and as always she was huddled in her tube (or the hedgie bag). There is, as I said, little or no poop on the wheel or in the cage in general.

We were told she was a little overweight because she had had a litter recently, could this be why she isn't very active? Or is she just adjusting to her new home? Or is this just typical for some hedgies?
 
These are great questions I unfortunately can't answer. I am having a similar problem with my Luna. She is active and alert when I hold her and during play time, but at night she just wants to hide.

For Willow I would check to make sure the temperature in her cage is warm enough. Make sure the room is dark enough, some hedgehogs won't come out on their own unless it is completely dark and quiet. Check her wheel spins easily and doesn't makes noise and it stable. No new or weird smells. Check her physically, make sure her toe nails aren't to long, no quills poking her. She is eating and drinking ok?

For being overweight, do you know how much she weighs? Can she curl into a tight ball? She should be able to.

Please keep me updated and share if you figure anything out. I will do the same.
 
Definitely good news that she likes to come out and roam around when she's with you.

It may be that she prefers the exact opposite when it comes to night-time wheeling. I've had a couple "closet-wheelers." They'd only come out to run when it was completely dark, the temp was just right, and there were no humans to be seen/smelled. And then, of course, there was Tex who kept running in his wheel as Hedgiedaddy was trying to slide it away from the cage wall. Silly kid!

I also second Raindog's recommendations on checking toenails. If they're a bit too long, it's not comfortable to run. What type of wheel does she have?
 
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