# Vent: lighting sabotage



## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

My dearest hedgehog co-keeper is driving me crazy this month.

Hedgehog's lighting schedule is a pair of LED lights on a timer, running up a maximum monthly cost of $3.67. I can handle being teased that I've created spotlights for a hedgehog musical, or that our small friend is trying to send bat-signals through the upstairs ceiling, but I am going absolutely bonkers that my co-keeper keeps FLIPPING OFF THE LIGHTSWITCH, then LEAVING IT OFF because "it's light outside."

...this apparently ignores that:
1. The weather is regularly overcast enough that shadows are a distant memory.
2. The days are getting shorter, very, very quickly.
3. It is dark before the light would automatically flip itself off, if only my co-keeper had remembered to turn the lightswitch back on again when it stopped being light outside, which is the whole point of having a timer.
4. Little hedgehog NEEDS regular lighting to be happy, healthy, and hibernation-free.

Polite conversations and calm reasoning are having no effect. So, my hedgehog-obsessed compatriots, I ask you which is the most appropriate response? 
A. Passive-aggressively electrical-taping the lightswitch into the "ON" position, graduating to superglue if necessary.
B. Frustrated shouting accompanied by pelting the perpetrator with the $3.67 contribution to the electrical bill (...which is under my name & I pay).
C. Tearful appeals to hedgehog health & happiness, accompanied by adorable photographs and horror-stories of hibernation attempts.
D. Curling into a huffing angry ball next to the lightswitch, and biting anything that comes within range.
E. Something entirely different, suggested in the replies.


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## Tom (Jul 21, 2013)

D! Hahaha. 

Maybe make it more of a hassle to turn the switch off? My lamp is hooked up to an outlet timer which is on the ground. Maybe get something like that and make it impossible to unplug or turn it off- like a lock. Or you know- electric taping the switch works too.


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## ajweekley (Aug 8, 2013)

Threaten to unplug the refrigerator? :lol: "It costs WAY more than the lighting, so we should unplug that too."


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: I like D too...or AJ's suggestion! Or...follow him around and turn off every light after he turns it on. "Sorry, too much electricity, it's light enough outside to see."


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## zamxonk (Mar 6, 2013)

Paying the 3.67 would probably only work if this person believed you that that was how much it costs.

I would definitely show them some hibernation horror stories. Or outright lie, the next time they do it, that you came home to find your hedgie trying to hibernate. Fake an emergency vet visit and glare at them in tears?

Is this person actually part-parent to your hedgie? Haven't they done any research?! ARGH.

I have some issues with housemates, who aren't cokeepers of my pig, keeping lights on late at night (to do totally valid work in a common space, so I can't legitimately be mad, just worried about my pig), and they've messed up his light timer once or twice by unplugging things, but they understand how important it is for his health to have those things in place and functional!


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## SpikeMoose (Dec 9, 2012)

I would share the horror stories first, and then go to option D. I think taking after our hedgies with a good huff would just be the icing on the "crazy hedgie person" cake


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## deftones (Jul 26, 2013)

Glue mousetraps to the lightswitch


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## silverbell_angel (Apr 17, 2012)

Remind them that hibernation= vet visit = expensive!!! Make sure they are willing to cover the expensive cost at the vet if they keep doing it.


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## ZeeMartin (Aug 5, 2013)

I'm thinking...

a note tapped over the switch that says "Hedgie is on a light schedule for his health, please do not turn off!"

then if the note is MOVED out of the way to flip the switch anyway, a conversation...

"hey did you turn the light off?"
_blah blah_
"Didn't you see the note? it was OVER the switch... you had to have MOVED it..."
_blah blah_
"oh, Ok. So how can I help you remember to leave the switching to the timer?"
_blah blah_
"I did explain why it matters, right? because if hedgie's light schedule is inconsistent, he could try to hibernate and DIE!!! right? after REALLY BIG VET BILLS!!. I did explain that, right?"
... and try to do that last part with your eyes bugging out of your head...


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## ZeeMartin (Aug 5, 2013)

or you could tape an envelope over the switch... note on the outside...

"Inside you'll find the $3.67 it will cost to leave the hedgie light on this month. I've also included a $10 starbucks card to thank you for letting the timer and lighting system do it's job so my hedgie can stay healthy. I really appreciate you helping me avoid huge vet bills that occur when a hedgie tries to hibernate. I'd be really sad if Hedgie died because we didn't keep his light schedule consistent.


how's that?


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## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

I'd previously buried the lightswitch in such an awkward position that I actually can't even reach it, but my longer-limbed co-keeper apparently had no troubles with that. It currently requires reaching 1m across the width of the hedgehog cage, reaching down to less than a foot off the ground, and blindly feeling under a stack of games to flip the switch. I don't think I can actually make it more awkward without resorting to Option A.

Last night, I appealed to Pet Health 101. My co-keeper has had a variety of exotic pets before, surely some of them required strict lighting schedules. No, apparently their lights went on and off with their human's schedule. Never thought I'd feel retroactive pity for a scorpion... Threatening vet bills is ineffective as our tiny quilled friend is lucky enough to have a granny-vet, and his vacation-sitters are a pair of vets-in-training.

But, I got a better answer than, "It's light outside." Now I'm being told that little hedgehog is nocturnal, so it's cruel to shine a light on him.

In response to that, I'm trying an argument-by-analogy. I pointed out how uncomfortable it is when the days get so long that it's never truly dark, and how hard it is for us diurnal, intelligent humans with curtains to sleep. I made reference to my co-keeper's jittery energy in the long summer nights, and the pleas for someone to drop a blanket over the whole building like a bird cage. Now, maybe that will translate into appreciating that the lighting system isn't cruel, it's actually helping hedgehog get nice, sound sleeps?

...although I think I'll still go for Zee's suggested bribe-guilt envelope, and use it to physically obstruct the hidden lightswitch even further.

Thank you for letting me vent, folks. Next up, we get to debate what temperature the included-in-rent central heating is set for to optimize between human comfort and minimizing hedgehog's CHE heating bills.


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## ZeeMartin (Aug 5, 2013)

... um... so "it's my hedgie and I'm responsible for his husbandry, so please just do as I ask" doesn't work?

sounding less passive in the passive-agressive department all the time.

don't think I'd be handling this one diplomatically at all. hope you get a handle on it more smoothly than I would :/
right about now I'd be... "too close for rockets, switching to guns..."


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## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

Alas, my small friend is "our hedgehog," and "we" are responsible for his health, happiness, and well-being. This is excellent when clipping toenails, but a bit more aggravating on weeks like this. Le sigh...

I've set up my home-office next to the hedgehog cage today. When co-keeper wanders past, I wave it threateningly while making playful-but-serious growling noises. This is a good learning process for us, as typically I yield more readily during disagreements, but tiny hedgehog is more important than what we're having for dinner! I shall not surrender! The light will shine on! Rowaaarr!!!

Let this be a lesson to others: sometimes, you must embrace absurdity and insanity to protect your charge. Because this was clearly the rational solution to our situation.


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## abbys (Oct 13, 2012)

Annie&Tibbers said:


> Let this be a lesson to others: sometimes, you must embrace absurdity and insanity to protect your charge. Because this was clearly the rational solution to our situation.


Psh, I embrace insanity every day, hedgehog or not! I also like Zee's envelope idea should your battle cry go ignored.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

:lol: I feel your pain...I turn into a bear if someone messes with animals under my care. I was always getting after anyone who tried to do something with Lily's set up, or fussing if she was getting too cold, etc. It made taking her up to our cabin difficult because I couldn't keep her in a more private area and it was hard to keep lights on/off for her there too. I stayed pretty vigilant, but she had a couple hibernation attempts during trips up there - one due to light, one due to getting a cold breeze into her bathroom. I seized the opportunity to go "SEE? I TOLD YOU." to family members and I did get less fight after that...but obviously that's not the ideal way to achieve results. :roll: No one in my family is even remotely animal-people, so we have very little in common - they don't understand me, and while I understand some people just aren't interested, I have VERY little patience when they won't listen to me about the care of an animal.

I hope co-keeper finally gives up the fight and leaves the light alone! Feel free to share my experience if you want, though. Perhaps rather than emphasizing the vet bills, emphasize the discomfort your little guy would go through? The stress of a hibernation attempt, the risk of it happening again, and the risk of a URI/pneumonia starting. All of those things DO happen from hibernation attempts - ask him how he feels when he has a cold & if $4/month is worth putting hedgie through that misery.

Edited to add: URIs also can cause them to lose appetite, which then requires syringe-feeding...more stress on both of you.

Also, I realized I should add that as far as I've seen, URIs and the like aren't SUPER common from hibernation attempts...I don't want to freak out any newer owners. :lol: But for the sake of protecting hedgie's wellbeing, a little embellishment and giving the "worst case scenario" can't hurt.


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## zamxonk (Mar 6, 2013)

Um, so does your cokeeper think it is cruel for the sun to shine on nocturnal animals? This is RIDICULOUS. Diurnal animals are cued by DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT to go to sleep, just as nocturnal animals are cued by light. Ask cokeeper how they'd feel as a diurnal animal if someone made it light outside 24/7 "because it would be cruel to put a diurnal animal in the dark!" Day/night cycles are an equal part of all animals' biorhythms, nocturnal, diurnal, or crepuscular! Further, remind your cokeeper that African hedgehogs (as hybrids of two main species) come from 1. Algeria and 2. central and eastern Africa, AKA equatorial regions where the day/night rhythms are roughly even throughout the year, unlike many places where owners live, which have days and nights that get longer and shorter with the seasons.


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