# A Schedule?



## sarah.rabia (Sep 25, 2010)

Do any of you have your hedgie on a strict schedule? I want to do this for my Chota, but I was wondering if some of you would be willing to post what your daily schedule is like for your hedgie. 
Ex: 9 p.m. Wake-up, 9:30 p.m. Cuddle-time ....etc. 
Thanks for helping out a soon-to-be new mommy!


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## Jaimie (Sep 27, 2009)

I usually shut off the lights about an hour before handling to let them wake up on their own but they don't always, they are only babies still and tend to sleep more.


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## PJM (May 7, 2010)

I am very consistent. 
*5am*, Lights on. Clean wheels, clean & refill water & food. Check temperature. Write down wheel odomometer info. Grab each hedgie for a quick check, no threads, no injuries. A good boy/girl mealie, quick kiss & back in the cuddle houses to sleep the day away.
*6pm*, Lights out.
*7pm*, Wake up first hedgie. Weigh. Mealworms & treats. Cuddle time with me 1 hour. 
*8pm*, Wake up second hedgie. Weigh. Mealworms & treats. Cuddle time with me 1 hour.

(Daddy's schedule isn't quite as consistent. He usually only has 1 hedgie a night. The other one spends some time in our "play pool", while only Zoey actually plays, Cholla spends his time sleeping.)


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

I try to stay fairly consistent with lights being on 8am and off at 9pm. I also try to do things in an order because I realize they are much more relaxed when they get in a routine and know what to expect. My one hedgie (the one that is super clean) makes me laugh because its like he knows the day I will clean his cage and I will usually find him in his hedgie bag that morning. Any other time he sleeps on it, it really makes me laugh and smile when I think of it. I pick him up snuggled like that and then put him back when I'm done lol Since he's super clean his cleaning schedule is very predictable. My other hedgie (the very messy one) knows that her schedule is getting her feet cleaned in the morning and an entire cage scrub down so she doesn't even startle because she knows its gonna get done. 

The general daily schedule
Lights on 8am
Spot Clean/Full Clean depending
quick once over
Lights off 9pm clean water and clean food
They hear the shower come on then come out to start their nights


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

The lights in my hedgie room are on from 7 AM to 8 PM. I usually clean the cages sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 AM (but later on the week-ends) and I always do them in the same order so they know what's going on. At night, Zoé usually wakes up sometime between 8:30 and 9 and Clémentine between 9:30 and 10 so I take Zoé out first whe'n she's ready, after she's done her business, ate, had a drink and played a little, for about 45 min and then Clémentine for the same amount of time.

When I only had Clémentine, the schedule was more strict. I would wake her up at 9 PM if she was still sleeping, wait about 15 minutes for her to do her business and eat and drink and then take her out for an hour. After I had her for a few months, she would actually be waiting for me in the corner of the cage I always picked her up from.


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## hercsmom (Jul 6, 2010)

My morning schedule is a lot stricter than my evening schedule. I'm up at 5:45 in order to be at work on time, so around 6am the wheel gets cleaned, water and food bowls cleaned and refreshed, and I usually have to put the little fleece strips from his dig box back in the dig box, as he drags them under his pigloo. I also check on him just to make sure he's ok, but no play time in the morning, Herc hates mornings!

Night schedules depend on the night. Hubby and I both work 2 jobs and I go to school, so whenever I get home he gets a footbath followed by at least an hour of play or cuddle time (98% of the time this means he sleeps on my chest). This is anywhere between 9pm-midnight. Then he goes back to his cage for dinner and a night of playtime. We're pretty lenient with the schedule in our house, as long as everything gets done.


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## karidaluv (Jul 26, 2010)

Rex is on a new schedule.

As for lighting schedule, he's in our second bedroom (he has it all to himself!) and his C&C cage is placed right next to the windows that have plantain shutters. What I did was face the shutters downward so he receives natural light instead of timed lighting. I do not open the shutters, but the light comes through cracks and it brightens the room but not overly bright. I do cover his cage every night to keep the temperature steady (cause evenings can get a bit chilly and with the fleece cover it stays between 72-74 at night) but I do not cover the side that the light comes through so even if the blanket is covering his cage on top, he still sees the light in the morning and knows when to sleep. So far it's worked beautifully. 

830am: take him out of his hedgie bag and feed him his morning worms.
840am: warm up the bathroom and let him run around in there while I clean his cage
900am: finished cleaning the cage
905am: pick Rex up from the bathroom to cuddle. If he has poopie boots I wash them at this time, or if he needs his bath I do that around this time. I put him in an unwashed, slept with pillow case on the bed and let him get comfy to cuddle with me. Some mornings this could also change up to him being let loose in the dining room area (hedgie-proofed, of course) for some morning exercise
1030am: put Rex back in his hedgie bag in his cage.
830pm: check on Rex to see if he woke up to eat. If he didn't. I take him out of his bag and feed him his nightly worms then place him in front of his food. When I do this, he'll start eating his dry mix and drink water and then head to his treat bowl.
930pm: check on Rex for bonding time. If he didn't use the restroom in his cage I'll take him out and let him roam in the bathroom for a few minutes to let him go, then cuddle with him.
1100pm: Rex is comfy but I don't spend more than 2 hours at night with him because I don't want to overstimulate him. He also huffs when he's tired of me after 2 hours, so I'll put him back in his cage and cover it with a fleece blanket for the night.


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## sarah.rabia (Sep 25, 2010)

Thanks everyone! 
This is helping so much! Yesterday I sat down and started to map out a little Chota schedule.


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## NoDivision (Aug 29, 2010)

Sherlock and I are on a slightly later schedule than most, but that's because he lives in my room and I'm a night owl. I try to be fairly consistent with it - his individual cage lamp is on a timer so that's always the same, and we have snuggle time around the same time every night. So it's later at night when he gets total dark, but I also get up later than some people, so the timing is about the same


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## fracturedcircle (May 31, 2010)

Sweetie:

7:30-8:00pm: rise and shine! he cuddles with me and every other day runs on the couch after that, under my mom's affectionate supervision.

he goes back to his home around 9pm, sometimes a bit later.

Harvey: 

10:00pm: rise and shine... he eats and cuddles (snores even, figuratively speaking) for an hour or more, depending on how exhausted i am.


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## EryBee (May 23, 2010)

I highly recommend buying a light timer. They cost around $5 at Target. MY schedule changes daily and because I can't guarantee that I'll be home in time to switch Phinneus's light on/off I got the timer.

Wake up time for me: Check Phin, make sure is alive and well. No cuddles- he is not a morning boy.
9 am. Lights on (I am usually in class by this time)
11 am- 2 pm Done with class, clean wheel and cage (if necessary)
Evenings I take him out to cuddle, usually around 8 or 9.
9 pm Lights off
12 am Phinneus comes to life

Phinneus MUST have complete darkness and relative silence for him to feel comfortable roaming around a wheeling. He waits until I have gone to bed to start up. Sometimes I hear him creep out of his hedgie bag before I fall asleep.


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

6:30am: House lights come on, had been 6am all summer but increased it because it seemed one or the other would still be up when they came on, typically Hester, still eating, once in awhile even Loki would still be up. Of course either go screaming into their house. Would rather have it at 7 or 8am but I get up for work at 5:50, so I want to be able to remove their curtain and at least poke their houses to make sure everything is fine.

7:30pm: House lights go out, most of the time. Cheap walmart timer doesn't always turn them off, so sometimes they might get an extra hour or so because of the faulty switch.

8/9pm: House cleaning, wheels are taken out and depending on what kind of night they had, either they are sprayed down and wiped or taken off the stand and sink washed. All poop is picked up, liners are changed if needed. Food is taken out, weighed and recorded, fresh food is weighed out. Cages are put back together, mealies dished out.

10:30pm: Room light is turned out and blackout curtain is put across the front of the cage and clipped down. Within 30 minutes Hester will come out, take a small jog on the wheel and then get food and water, before going into her cycle of wheeling and eating. Loki will come out usually after Hester has, maybe woken up by her fat arse on the wheel, eat, drink and then jump on the wheel.

Currently there hasn't been too much socializing, something I've been talking about in another thread on here. Either way I'm typically not one to actually go and wake up my guys, so if we do socialize, its roughly 11pm, I let them get up on their own and do their bathroom business, and then we start in. Even if I don't get them out at night, I get a little pen flashlight and do an inspection. I've gotten lucky and both my guys somehow manage to keep their feet very clean, most of the time.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm also a nightowl so mine and Lily's schedule is a bit different. Her light goes on for the morning at 10:30 am, and I usually get up sometime around there or a bit later and peek in at her to be sure that she's eaten, pooped, and all is well. Then she gets left alone to sleep the day away.

I don't get her out for snuggles every night for various reasons (busy, or once in awhile bad mood, which she picks up on and cuddle time turns bad for both of us), but on the nights that I do, I usually get her out between 9 and 10 pm. We cuddle for an hour or two, and she usually gets taken back upstairs around 11-11:30. I clean her cage up and change food/water, then she gets popped back in and usually starts right in on her food. Her light goes off at about 11:30 too, so once I leave my room, she has dark to have her first little jaunt around her cage. She's usually back in her igloo and sleeping by the time I head up to bed, then after I'm sleeping and quiet, she'll come back out for another round of food and wheeling.


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