# Very anxious and more jumpy than usual



## stellistyle101 (May 1, 2015)

I'm starting to get worried about my hedgehog. Lately she has been extra jumpy and hissy. When we take her out of her cage for social time, she wont let us even get new her without getting "angry" and hissing. 
I thought it might be due to the changing weather. Where we live is kind of chilly especially at night and one particular night (a few nights after the strange behavior started) I noticed her belly was quite cold and started turning up the heat and keeping her heat emitter on at night. 
Other than this I am not sure what could be wrong because nothing particularly stressful is happening like quilling or dry skin. I dont believe she could have gotten mites from anywhere either. Anyone have any advice or explanations?


----------



## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

How old is she? What kind of light schedule does she have? Temperature should be kept consistent with only a small variance, so the heat emitter should be on 24/7 and controlled by a thermostat.

Behavior changes can also be a sign that there's something wrong and that a vet visit may be in order.


----------



## Slava (May 29, 2015)

It's not the end of the world if they huff. For my hedgie:

Huff=he didn't like a noise, or got scared of my hand or a shadow. Accompanied by a duck 
Pop, curl into a ball, try to escape being picked up=IT'S MY TIME DON'T TOUCH ME.He will do this is I grab him at like 2am when he's resting.. but once he sees it's me we are cool.

So yeah I'm trying to say you need to know her schedule and try to stick to it and anytime she is acting up you just ask if the schedule changed. There are a million things you can overlook, so think hard.


Get a space heater then you don't worry about turning up the heat it will do it for you when the temperature drops..

What's her schedule like? If she is jumpy and hissy right away when you wake her up then maybe you are waking her up too suddenly? Try to be real gentle. That's one reason my hedgie sleeps in a sack.. so that I can take him out of the cage without really disturbing his sleep, and then I can wake him up gently, which doubles as bonding.


Get everything else in check like temperature, drafts.


----------



## Slava (May 29, 2015)

ALso you can tell most of the time how the hedgehog will react to you touching them. If they are actively sniffing around(exploring) then they are pretty content but when he's just sitting there still 1 eye on me, I know he's gonna jump and huff soon as my hand comes near. And I noticed mine doesn't mind petting when I am holding him in my hand.


----------



## stellistyle101 (May 1, 2015)

The reason I posted this is because I haven't done anything different in the past weeks that would have caused the behavior. I know huffing is normal when they first wake up or because they dont want to be handled or even if they get scared when you first go to pick them up. But this is excessive. She wont want to be handled at all and will pop and hiss when she is out until we put her back in her cage. She's still fairly young but I just thought this was strange. I sort of wanted to know if there could be any reason I need to take her to the vet because the vet I had chosen when I got her (because he takes small animals) closed his practice down and the nearest one I could take her to is about an hour and a half away.


----------



## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Go back to husbandry issues. Lighting and heat schedule. What is the temperature in the cage? How much is the temperature varying? How many hours of light is she getting? At night is she getting any ambient light?
Also, of she is quilling, she could be more jumpy as she is uncomfortable.


----------



## stellistyle101 (May 1, 2015)

Now that I caught this, the temperature of the cage is very consistent. But the lighting varies, and while I recognize this is not ideal, it has always varied. I understand that is not the best thing for her and I might try to change that, I don't think it is causing her increasing edginess because like I said, this behavior has happened recently. She is not quilling.
What I am asking, is this: if nothing in her environment has changed at all (including lighting, temperature, and activity level regarding how much we take her out), what could cause this behavior?


----------



## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

shinydistraction said:


> Behavior changes can also be a sign that there's something wrong and that a vet visit may be in order.


^^^^^ This. If you have completely ruled out anything environmental, and fixed any environmental problems, and the behavior persists, then it may be time for a visit to ensure that nothing else is going on.


----------



## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

OK, does she have the heat emitter on 24/7? If not, why? The lighting is inconsistent, why and how so? Is she getting to much light, or not enough?
Do you have a thermometer inside the cage? What is the temperature? 

Husbandry issues can very well cause behavior issues. Issues that had been going on for awhile can build up and problems appear suddenly. 

The only symptom she is showing is a sudden behavior change, that happened after a hibernation attempt. The cause was either heating or lighting issues. She might be weakened by the attempt and gotten sick. However you hadn't mentioned any symptoms for people to point you in the right direction, other than husbandry. You fix those issues, the behavior might improve. If it doesn't, she would need a full work up done by a vet.


----------

