# Questions from new hedgehog owner



## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

We've had our new hedgehog, Wilson, for almost a week now. He seems to have a wonderful personality and is adjusting well to his new home. I've read a lot in this forum over the last couple of weeks and I have just a few questions.

First of all, does his cage setup look ok? There is a high edge around the base of the cage so I'm hoping that he won't be able to reach the bars to climb. Since this photo was taken, we have since changed the litter pan to beneath the wheel. As well, I've ordered the Storm Wheel so it will shortly replace the wheel in the photo. The Comfort Wheel in the photo works very well but I'm hoping the CSW will be a bit quieter.










Other questions: 
He has lost a couple of quills. Two, to be exact, in five days. Is this normal? I know quill loss isn't generally ok but I assume they will lose a quill here and there. He is three months old, if that makes a difference. Is there a time upcoming when he will replace all of his quills? The only thing I can think of is the word "molt" but I know that is a term used for birds. Do hedgehogs do something similar?

How many meal worms per day can a hedgehog eat and remain healthy? He runs a good deal of the night on his wheel. We gave him three meal worms yesterday. Can he have some every day? He gobbled them right up.

Is it ok to wake him during the day for a couple of brief visits? He doesn't seem to mind too much. He is prickly when he is first disturbed but within 60-90 seconds of petting, he is calm and seems happy enough to explore a lap. My daughter (10 years old) is his "official" owner and she likes to visit with him for a bit before school and also again after school. I also like to take him out for a visit when I come home from work. Is it detrimental to him for us to wake him like this during the day? His normal awake time seems to be 9:30pm-7:00am.

We will shortly need to get him set up with a heating system. I plan to go the route of a CHE with thermostat. Will having the CHE sitting directly on top of the metal cage transfer the heat down the metal bars and make the bars hot down near the base of the cage? I would hate for him to be accidentally burned.

I think that's all of my questions for now. Here is a photo of Wilson with my daughter, who loves him so very much.


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

Oh, one more question! He, of course, potties in his wheel every night. My daughter cleans the wheel every morning and we've also been cleaning Wilson's feet in the morning as well. We put him in a 1/2 inch of warm water and rub the poo off his toes. He does *not* like this too much and is happy to be freed of the little bath. What do others do about dirty feet in the morning? I hate to torture him. Maybe he'll get used to it eventually?


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## Hedgehog Grove (Jul 21, 2010)

Firstly Welcome to HHC and congratulations on your new baby.

Your cage setup up looks good and well done on order a CSW 

Quill loss is normal, they shed a quill here and there for new ones all time. Has he gone through his adult quilling? Been 3 months old he should already started and finished or getting ready to start this process. Keep an eye on the number of quills, if it becomes more he is likely going through his adult quilling. 

I feed mine 4 meal worms a night, as long as he is remaining healthy and not putting on masses of weight from the meal worms 4 should be good. What kibble are you feeding him and do you weigh him daily?

Yes, it is perfectly fine to take him out for brief periods during the day. I take mine out for 30mins in the morning and afternoon and then for 1-2hours at night once they wake up.
this will increase the bond he has with you and your family also, so that is a good thing. You can also put a shirt or piece of fleece you have slept with for a couple of days, this helps him recognize your scent.

It should be perfectly safe for you to use the CHE on top of the cage without the metal getting hot. If the metal is getting hot then you have the CHE thermostat to high and too high is not good for hedgies in general. 

With the footsy baths, you can limit them to every few days unless they are super dirty. Also try putting him in the bath have a towel on the bottom and have the water come just above it. The towel will help clean his feet as he walks around. Let him walk around and clean them himself for now, they don't have to be perfect until he gets used to baths. 
Gorgeous photo of your daughter and the new baby. Looks like he is very friendly with her


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

Thanks very much for your response! We kept the same food as the breeder was using, which is Royal Canin Baby Kitten. She advised to switch to Royal Canin Kitten at six months old. I don't know if he has gone through his adult quilling yet. I will have to email her and ask. We have weighed him twice so far. He was 283g the day we brought him home, and then 279g two days later. I need to weigh him again today to make sure he is not continuing to lose weight but he has definitely stepped up his food consumption since that second weighing. I think he was a bit off his schedule his first day or so after leaving the breeder's. He runs and runs and runs at night and eats much kibble in between runs, apparently, since the bowl has considerably less food the following morning. The meal worms we've given with tweezers at the evening play time as my husband doesn't really want meal worms "loose" in the house. Neither do I, to be honest.


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## Shelobe (Jul 22, 2010)

I'd just like to say excellent job so far on taking care of you hedgie. It's awesome to see somebody to research to make sure their new family member is getting the proper care it needs. Kudos!


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## LarryT (May 12, 2009)

Congrats on the hoglet  Wilson and your daughter are both adorable!Wilson's setup looks fine to me. Just got back from the post office mailing your wheel  it should be there in 6-7 days.


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

Thanks to you all for the kind comments! We are enjoying our new family member very much. Looking forward to the new wheel, Larry. Especially my husband who seems to be the only one who can't tune out the sound of the current wheel.


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

First of all - welcome to HHC! Wilson is precious - as is your daughter.
I have the exact same cage set up as you & it works great. I especially love that I can pull the liner out like you have done - you won't have to deal with having a hedgie that likes to go under the liner. Makes life much easier.
I feed my hedgies a few mealies every night. No more than 5. My husband doesn't mind the mealies too much, but when they turn into aliens, he wants them gone, gone, gone! :lol: 
My only comment about the foot baths is that I do mine at night before our bonding time. They should be completely dry before you put them back in the cage & I don't have enough time to do it before work.
Most of us feed a mixture of a few kinds of kibble. There is a great thread on the best choices. Main thing is to keep the fat & protein under certain %.
It's very good to see you taking such an active roll with Wilson's care. 

One last thing - we love pictures & fun stories.


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

Ugh! I didn't know the meal worms will transform. I'm not looking forward to that. They skeeve me out in their regular form. {shudder} We were doing the footbaths in the morning as I didn't figure he'd enjoy sleeping in his igloo with stinky toes. I also don't know if hedgies groom themselves with their tongue. I didn't want him licking his dirty feet and making himself sick. I will check out the kibble mixture thread - thanks for that suggestion!


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

:lol: Lol! Yeah, they will eventually turn into beatles, if you let them. I finally feel comfortable touching a mealie, but the aliens freak me out! Thank goodness for tweezers! Also, my hedgies love the aliens almost as much as mealies, so if I find one, I just quickly feed it to them. Won't ever forget the first time I saw one, though! :shock: :lol: 
As far as the 'poop boots' go, each hedgie is different. My girl Zoey always has clean feet & gorgeously manicured nails. While my boy Cholla likes his poop boots to be knee-high. :roll: They won't hurt anything though.


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## Hedgehog Grove (Jul 21, 2010)

You need to slowly incorporate each new food individually over a 3-4 week period but only one new food at a time. So you would start with your first choice and slowly replace say 10% of RC Babycat with the new food, continue this until you get down to 50%. So say your hog eats 100 pieces of kibble a night, you take out 10 pieces of the RC Babycat and replace with 10 pieces of the new food so it would be 90 RC/10 New Food. Leave it like that for a couple of days and then remove another 10 pieces of RC and replace with another 10 pieces of new food so it would be 80 RC/20 New Food. Continue this until you get down to 50 RC/50 New Food

After this you can start incorporating another new high quality cat food if you want. Just go down to equal amount of each, then you can easily mix them together in a storage container to keep them fresh.

This will take time and it needs to be done slowly due to stomach upsets with the hedgie and the new food.

Also your hedgie may not like the new food you give him so try getting sample bags of them first, use it for a couple of weeks and see if he likes it. Some hedgies are picky eaters while others aren't.

Many members and breeders here use a mix of 2+ high quality cats foods to feed their hedgies.

I currently use a mix of Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul- Lite and Nutrience Light (available in Canada only) and I am just starting to introduce Now! Kitten for my avid runners.

Royal Canin is a good recommended brand for hedgies, even though I don't use it myself due to the corn in it but that is my preference.

Here is the Cat Food Chart - Everything in *GREEN* is the recommend ones 

http://hedgehogcentral.com/CatFoodChart6.html

Let us know what ones you choose and we can offer advice on them if any of us use them also. 

Oh with the mealies, I store mine in the fridge and only take out what I intend to feed that night. They hibernate in the cold and it stops them from transforming as well.


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

welcome!

i clearly can't speak for every hedgie but Sweetie loves his poop and the smell must be comforting to him... don't mean to sound gross.  the suggestion about a towel on the bottom is right on the money: it'll add some traction and speed up the cleaning process.


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## Hedgehog Grove (Jul 21, 2010)

LOL knew I was forgetting something.

Wilson may gain some more weight due to him just been a baby still but he should level off at about 6 mths of age. Do you free feed?

Also if you continue to weigh daily it will help you notice if he gets sick. Hedgies are very good at hiding an illness until sometimes its too late. So if Wilson drops a dramatic amount of weight you would know and be able to take him to see a vet asap and possibly be syringe feed and watered etc.

If your concerned about his weight later on because of the mealies a good way to tell if his weight is okay is to do a simple check. Can he roll into a tight ball and are there any fat rolls under his chin or arms.


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

We will get into the habit of weighing every day. Yes, we do free feed so far. That was what the breeder suggested. I will keep an eye on his fat rolls (or, hopefully, the lack thereof). How do you make them roll into a ball? Wilson will puff up when startled or awakened, but he has so far not done the full ball yet. Even putting him on his back doesn't do it. He'll squirm around to upright himself but won't entertain us by going into a cute little puff ball.


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## Hedgehog Grove (Jul 21, 2010)

When you put him on his back how is he with you touching his belly or feet? Generally that does the trick and they will automatically roll into a ball and huff/pop away lol Other than that I'm not sure, you don't want to intentional scare him and it can be detrimental to your bonding. 

If you can't get him to roll into a ball then just go by whether he has fat rolls or not. 

Some hedgies are really big but aren't fat, I've seen a couple of 700g hedgies and they can roll int a tight ball and have no fat rolls. Each hedgie is different.


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## hercsmom (Jul 6, 2010)

Welcome, and congrats on Wilson, he is too cute! Your daughter looks so happy with him, you can really tell he is going to be a well-loved boy!

I had to comment on the poopy boots. Hercules not only has poopy boots, but I have found poop literally everywhere on him! Just yesterday, I woke up to find the entire back of one ear covered in dried poop! You'd be surprised where poop ends up!

We also do a foot bath before cuddle time at night. There's no way I'd go near Herc in the morning, he is definitely not a morning hog!


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## Sheryl (Sep 9, 2010)

hercsmom said:


> There's no way I'd go near Herc in the morning, he is definitely not a morning hog!


Wilson is actually just finishing up his night of play when my daughter is waking up and starting to work on his cage. When she gets out of bed he's still running on his wheel some. Of course, as soon as she gets up and starts moving around the room, he hops off the wheel and makes a beeline for his igloo or elephant. She cleans the wheel and then gets him out for his feet cleaning. After that she bundles him in his little towel and fleece, cuddles with him for a bit, and then he sits on her lap while she eats breakfast. So he isn't technically asleep yet when we do the bath, but his sleep is delayed a bit by her morning routine of playing with him. But my daughter likes the idea that he's going to bed with nice, clean feet. His feet are dry by the time he's put back in his cage.


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

Sheryl said:


> But my daughter likes the idea that he's going to bed with nice, clean feet. His feet are dry by the time he's put back in his cage.


Sounds like a good routine. I say "take his clean feet & run with it"


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## hercsmom (Jul 6, 2010)

It seems like the timing in the morning works out well, that's great! Wilson is one lucky hog!


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