# am i taking care right?



## linkinflo (Apr 20, 2010)

Hi, am new to hedgehog central and am wondering if i take care of my hedgehog right. so if you can tell me how i can improve it would be great.

every day i wake up and look at my hedgehog to see if he got hurt at night.
later at about 2 i take himoutside and let him snuggle and sleep on me and while he is sleeeping i call my sister to take care of him while i go and clean his house.
i change his water and food then i soak and clean his wheel and his house. after that i clean the under part of his house and let it dry. while i let it dry i go and stay with him. then when it is dryed i take the under part of his house and put new pet viruta (thats in spanish sorry).
then i get his wheel and put it in the house and his food dish and water bottle after that i put his house and and then i take him to his house and let him sleep till 10. at then i change his water and play with him in a plastic dump truck and what i do is i put treats and let himtry to dump the truck to get the treats. after that i play wink of hide and seek with him and its preety fun. then i let him go on his play pan and i watch him till its 11. that is when i have to go to bed to go to school.


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## krbshappy71 (Jul 17, 2009)

I think you are doing a very good job. It is important to check on them in the morning, as you do. Keep up the good work! To make things easier, if you wanted to, you could take out the wheels in the morning and let them soak all day, they are easier to clean that way. 

I only clean the entire houses once a week, so if it gets to be too much work for you doing it every day you could do it every other day or every couple of days. I think it is great you are doing more, though.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

The only problem I see with doing a full clean every day, is that your hedgie might lose his sense of "home". 
Basically, I would recommend putting at least one piece of fleece in there that you don't clean daily, so that his scent is always lingering inside the cage. 
For example, when I change liner, I do not change his bed fleece. So that his scent remains on the bed. Then, when I switch out the bed fleece, I do not change the liner on the same day, usually the next day. 
Because they are "prey" animals, I just feel that having their own scent lingering in the place they should call home is important, as it allows them the feeling of being safe. But, this is just a personal opinion, and others may think differently.


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## Hedgieonboard (Nov 15, 2009)

It sounds like you are doing a great job  I do what Immortalia does and when I clean out the cage I leave one of his blankets in there and wash everything else. 

Congrats on your new hedgie, he sounds like a lucky little guy to have such a great hedgie parent


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## linkinflo (Apr 20, 2010)

thanks guys, i was wondaring if i was a bad owner but now i know am not that bad  
well am gonna try out what you guys said about leaving something and not cleaning it for more than 3 days i think you said..well anyways so he can feel more at home. what should i not clean, the house blanket, or the wheel? 

well but now am having a problem with him,heck my other poast and if you can help me it would be great. its about his house, ok.


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

I would clean his wheel everyday. everything else you don't have to clean daily unless it's really abnormally dirty. 

I looked up "viruta" on a translater and it said it means "shavings". I am guessing you use shavings as bedding?

If this is the case you can scoop up the shavings that have pee/poo on them and leave the rest. You probably only need to change out the shavings 1-2 times a week (more if you notice they get dirty more).

What kind of shavings are they? You could always consider switching to a fabric liner. It would only need to be washed in your washing machine about twice a week and "spot" cleaning it in the morning is a lot easier with liners than with shavings in my opinion.

Just a thought to make your cleaning easier


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## linkinflo (Apr 20, 2010)

Am not really sure that here in argentina there is fabric "shavings". i just use the one that looks like wood shavings, but about changing it every day am might try what SnufflePuff said and if i like it am gonna keep doing it  and about what i use for bedding it is actually a blanket, just saing it, not to be mean becouse here the coltire is deferent and i dont want to offand anyone and if i am am really sorry.


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## SnufflePuff (Apr 16, 2009)

linkinflo said:


> Am not really sure that here in argentina there is fabric "shavings". i just use the one that looks like wood shavings, but about changing it every day am might try what SnufflePuff said and if i like it am gonna keep doing it  and about what i use for bedding it is actually a blanket, just saing it, not to be mean becouse here the coltire is deferent and i dont want to offand anyone and if i am am really sorry.


Oh okay sorry I didn't realize that you used a blanket as well as the wood shavings for the bedding. Not changing it every day should be fine 

Language barriers can sometimes be a bit of challenge on here, but it sounds to me like you're doing a fantastic job overall


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## Amy1024 (Mar 18, 2010)

linkinflo said:


> Am not really sure that here in argentina there is fabric "shavings". i just use the one that looks like wood shavings, but about changing it every day am might try what SnufflePuff said and if i like it am gonna keep doing it  and about what i use for bedding it is actually a blanket, just saing it, not to be mean becouse here the coltire is deferent and i dont want to offand anyone and if i am am really sorry.


The fabric you should use is fleece and not anything where the threads can come loose (ex. towels). But yes, you can just use sheets of fleece


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## linkinflo (Apr 20, 2010)

yeah, i use flece and when i dont i make sure that there is no loose small strings so he does not get hurt or anything like that.


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