# Travel by car 18 hours



## lmg_319 (Oct 4, 2010)

Hi everyone

I am travelling with my hedgie tomorrow 18 hours in a car non-stop. Holden already made this trip in May but we did it in two days, so it wasn't as bad. We are leaving at 5 am. He is usually in bed by then, but I wanted a few opinions. He will be in a small pet carrier (hard sided) with lots of blankets and fleece. Should I give him food in the carrier? It won't spill as he will be in the back seat of the car. He didn't get car sick last trip we took. How often should i give him water? What if he won't unball for water? On the previous trip, he didn't really want to unball until I took him out when we got home. Any other suggestions? Also, we will be staying in a hotel overnight until I get my apartment the next day. I have heard of people using the bathtub for their hedgie. How did you keep it warm enough? His CHE sits on top of his cage and I wouldn't feel comfortable hanging it over the bathtub. Should I just set his C&C up in the hotel?

Thanks


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## lmg_319 (Oct 4, 2010)

Any advice?


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## lehaley (Jun 25, 2011)

I'm not an expert on hedgie travel by any means (I'm not picking up my hedgie until Monday), but I plan on traveling with him quite a bit going back and forth to and from college. I've been weighing options on how to best do this, and I've gotten a lot of suggestions from people on this forum. 

If you can control the temperature of your hotel room, you may be able to get away with the bathtub scenario. If that's not the case, you may have to temporarily set up the C&C cage. You could also consider keeping him in the travel carrier overnight if it is large enough. If you have access to hand warmers, you could wrap them in fleece and put them in the carrier with him. The hand warmers might be a bit difficult to find around this time of year, but you could probably find them in an outdoors store or in a store that has a decent outdoors section.

I hope some of that helps you a bit. I don't really have any suggestions for the problem with getting him to unball for water, but I'm sure more people will be along with some ideas for that soon.


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2011)

lmg_319 said:


> Hi everyone
> 
> I am travelling with my hedgie tomorrow 18 hours in a car non-stop. Holden already made this trip in May but we did it in two days, so it wasn't as bad. We are leaving at 5 am. He is usually in bed by then, but I wanted a few opinions. He will be in a small pet carrier (hard sided) with lots of blankets and fleece. Should I give him food in the carrier? It won't spill as he will be in the back seat of the car. He didn't get car sick last trip we took. How often should i give him water? What if he won't unball for water? On the previous trip, he didn't really want to unball until I took him out when we got home. Any other suggestions? Also, we will be staying in a hotel overnight until I get my apartment the next day. I have heard of people using the bathtub for their hedgie. How did you keep it warm enough? His CHE sits on top of his cage and I wouldn't feel comfortable hanging it over the bathtub. Should I just set his C&C up in the hotel?
> 
> Thanks


If a hedgehog is thirst or hungry it will unball once it feels there is no danger, if not then there is something bothering the hedgehog health-wise IMO


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

If he'll probably be sleeping the whole day while you're driving, I wouldn't worry about having food offered, especially if he doesn't usually come out during the day for a snack. Even if he didn't get carsick last trip, best to avoid a full belly, I would think. You can just offer him food once you've stopped at the hotel. I'm not sure on water though....Perhaps you could offer him some when you stop for stretches and bathroom breaks, but don't stress too much if he refuses? Again, going by the assumption that on a normal day, he'd just be sleeping all day without food/water anyway.

For the bathtub, does the lamp having any clamping parts for it? I know mine came with clamp things, and even though I have them sitting on top of the cage, I use the clamps to keep them in place sometimes, so they don't get knocked off. If you have something like that, maybe you could find someplace on/around the bathtub to clamp the lamp onto. Or, like lehaley said, maybe you can adjust the temperature in your room to a safe temp for him. If neither of those things work, the best thing may be to set up his C&C, as much of a pain as that would be.


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## lmg_319 (Oct 4, 2010)

Thanks guys. We have arrived and all is well.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

lmg_319 said:


> Thanks guys. We have arrived and all is well.


Glad to hear it!


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