Bert is curled up and won't come out..

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Kawaii_Hedgie_Chin_Love

Kawaii_Hedgie_Chin_Love

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 14, 2009
Messages
152
Location
Michigan
He's not in hibernation, it's warm in the room he's in. I left for the night and when I cam eback he's completely unresponsive, he's breathing but he's curled tightly into a ball and he's cold. He's starting to huff a little more, but that's all. He's got water, he's out of food but I gave him some before I left, so he must've eaten it last night. I have absolutely no idea what the problem could be, i've never had this happen before...
 
He'es hibernating. The room might be warm but it's not warm enough for him. If he is in an quilly unresponsive ball and cold, he is in hibernation. Warm him up slowly until he is back to normal. Under your clothing is good or else set him on a heating pad on low and the heating pad on you. Make sure he does not warm up too quickly and don't leave him on any heat unsupervised until he is back to normal. Do not put him in a bath do warm him up.

Once he is warm and normal, you will need to keep his environment a couple of degrees warmer or this will happen again and the chance of him doing it again in the next week or two is high so monitor him closely.
 
They will be very wobbly as they start to warm up. If he is wobbly he is still not warmed up. Continue to hold him against your chest under your shirt. As he warms he should get stronger.

If he doesn't improve, go to the vet. After he is better, you need to figure out why he got cold.
 
I just had a question, so why is it bad for them to go into hibernation? Does It usually mean they have gotten to cold? I dont own any hedgies but I am just curious. The ones I see at petstores dont have any type of heating source for them.
 
Our pet hedgehogs are from tropical warm climates and need to be kept warm. Unlike their Europeon cousins, our guys are not able to hibernate. They don't store the type of fat required to live off of during hibernation and hibernation will kill them.

Not being warm enough will trigger their body to start shutting down but because they cannot hibernate, they keep right on shutting down. The longer they are in it or the deeper they are into it, the worse the outcome. I've heard of some that were in it for a couple of days and ended up dieing even with vet care.

Each hedgehog is different. Some are okay at temperatures that would put others into hibernation. Often temperature sensitivity increases with age so the hedgehog can be fine at a certain temperature for the first months or year and then suddenly that temperature is not warm enough. I've had a few that around a year started needed their environment kept a couple degrees warmer. Same with the oldies.

In most petstore environments, it's survival of the fittest. If the hedgehog goes into hibernation, well, you can guess what happens.
 
Ah, the temp. at my house has been at 65 the past two days, and his heating pad was broken. That would explain the hibernation. But after he came out, I disocovered that he was pretty dehydrated. I checked his water and it looked like he hadn't drank any all night. I managed to get a syringe full into him, it took me quite a while to get him used to it, stubborn little thing. He was still too weak to drink/eat on his own, so I continued to syringe water into his mouth every 20 minutes, every other syringe full had a small dose of vitamins in it. I layed him on a towel over a heating pad, and near a heating vent in the wall. I layed down next to him, and after about 3 times of watering him, he started to act more normal. (huffing at my touch while he was curled up, etc.)
At around 12:30 he FINALLY drank on his own, and ate a few mealworms. I decided to stay up for another hour just to make sure he was doing ok. He crawled back into the towel and fell asleep, so I went to let my dogs outside before I put them to bed. When I came back, he was gone!! I was so relevied but so scared at the same time. It was a good sign that he was up and moving, but I had no idea where he went. I slowly unfolded the towel, no Bert. I lifted up my blanket, no Bert. I tore through a pile of clothes laying nearby, no Bert. I did hear some faint huffing though. I finally picked up a shirt laying in the corner and got poked quite badly through the thin fabric =( that's what I get for not giving Bert his sack. haha. After that I moved his cage into the bathroom (where the heating vent is, by far the warmest room in the house) and as of now, he's doing very very good =)

I've had so much trouble with this hedeghog, far more trouble than i've ever had with hedgies in the past. I don't know what it is about this one, but he seems to be drawn to bad luck.
 
You may find that this hedgehog just requires a warmer environment than your other hedgehogs in the past have. Keep in mind some will do ok at 72, others may need it closer to 76 to stay healthy.

You will also find there are many of us that do not recommend a heating pad a the sole source of supplemental heating. They do fine for providing heat to a sleeping area, but do not provide heat to the air temperature. So when a hedgehog is running on its wheel it may take a chill. I've always questioned that while the hedgehog may return to the warmth and be fine, could this constant chill and rewarming harm their immune system. I think its likely.

Its been extremely cold in Michigan lately, so you may need to find yourself another heating source to keep him warm enough. I use an oil filled space heater to supplement the furnace in my hedgehog room.

Also keep a close eye on him for the next 2-4 weeks. If he was that far into hibernation then his immune system may have become compromised. Watch his weight closely, how much he is eating and drinking, and for any signs of a URI. If you see anything, take him to a vet so that you can catch whatever happened early.
 
He's eating and drinking fine for now.
And I also have a heater underneath his cage so when I turn it on, it warms the fleece to a comfortable temp. for him, and also warms the overall temp of his cage. I just didn't turn it on because I thought it was going to be nice and toasty in his cage, rather than 65 degrees =(
He seems to be doing great now, he's still active, his eating habits are good, i'm not too worried but i've been keeping a close watch on him just in case.
 
Bert is going to need a consistent temperature or he runs the risk of going back into hibernation. Every hibernation attempt puts a huge strain on their immune system. With every hibernation attempt it is harder and harder to bring them back.
 
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