# Worried About My Pouch Potatoe.



## Shell (Aug 23, 2012)

My little Percy has grown into a very well adjusted, happy, content, Big boy. He never bite's, let's me bath and clip his nails, eats like a piggy and is strangely very clean. Only uses his wheel and litter box and keeps his cage spotless. My worry is that he's obsessed with his fleece pouchie's. Everytime I take him out of his cage all he wants is his pouch. I put him in his big play pen and he panics if his pouch isn't there. If I put it in with him, he runs to it like his best friend, snuggles in and sleeps. Night and day he lives in his pouch. Other than wheeling at night, I don't see him getting any exersize. If I put him on the ground, the bed, on me, or basically anywhere, all he does is search for a dark place to snuggle into. Personally, I'm fine with him the way he is, but he's 464 grams at 19 weeks and I worry about him getting fat, though at the moment he doesn't have any fatty spots and can roll into a ball. Plus I'm weening him off kitten food by adding more cat food as a transition. Is it normal for hedgy's to sleep so much and prefer to spend most their time hiding in a pouch? If he smells mealie's, he's out of his pouch in a heart beat, eats up, and runs back. As I said, I'm fine with the way he is, just hoping this is normal for hedgehogs.
Thank you.


----------



## ktdid (Aug 7, 2012)

Sounds like my Fitz who is about the same age. lol. He doesn't have snuggle bags, but yeah he pretty much just wants to sleep and cuddle and be wrapped up in his fleece.


----------



## Shell (Aug 23, 2012)

Do you sometime's worry too that Fitz isn't getting enough exersize due to his love of fleece? Percy loves his pouches so much, God forbid if he dirties them. If he's in his pouch on my lap, he backs his butt out and poops outside the edge and then crawls back in. I'm a clean freak myself, but he's completely compulsive. lol


----------



## ktdid (Aug 7, 2012)

LOLOLOL. Well Fitz definitely isn't compulsive like that, although he does clean his own poop boots which is awesome so we only have footbaths when it gets under the nails. But yes, I do worry that he doesn't get enough exercise sometimes. He does run on his wheel quite a bit and like your Percy despite being a big boy he doesn't display any signs of being overweight. I guess at this age they are still technically young hedgies though so with those things in mind I try not to worry about it to much. I am definitely interested in hearing what other owners have to say though.


----------



## Shell (Aug 23, 2012)

Percy also cleans his own bootie's. (gag....lol) I think it's because he got tired of me giving him foot baths every morning before I headed to work. I'm also looking forward to other's thoughts on this. Thank you for assuring me, Percy isn't alone.


----------



## ashley e (Oct 31, 2012)

I thought the same thing about my Harvey girl, but I was awakened one morning at about 5am by her going about 50mph on her wheel! I had not seen her use it, I had only seen the tumbled poops left over from the night, when I would wake up. Harvey is still pretty young so I was worried that she would learn that sleeping 24/7 is okay (even when I have her out, she just crawls into my shirt and sleeps) but she is very active at night and growing nicely.


----------



## Amlinals (Jul 26, 2012)

Glad to read this, my girl is the same way. I know he uses her wheel every night, because of the poop, but I have no idea how much. And anytime she's out she just looks for a corner to hide her face in. I'm pretty lazy too, so I feel pretty hypocritical complaining about her energy level, lol, but she's so young I thought she'd be a little more active. She's definitely not getting fat though. So I suppose I shouldn't worry until she does start getting fat?


----------



## JulieAnne (Sep 3, 2012)

Sounds a lot like my Prim, who is currently in the front pocket of my hoodie asleep lol. She spends most of her time, if not in her wheel at night, then she is either in her pouch, a blanket or she burrows under her fleece lining in her cage lol. I turn the lights out and everything at about 8pm every day and she gets up, runs on her wheel for about 30 minutes, eats some and goes back to sleep for about an hour or so and repeats. I need to get an odometer to see how much she is really running ever night. Granted, this is my first hedgie and I've only had her since September so I'm a very new hedgie owner, but I've looked into this too and sounds like it's fairly normal. Hedgies are little critters and, especially being that ours are rather young, they sleep a lot. It's a very very big world so what seems like "not far" when they run/move around is MILES for them(at least that's how I look at it). So long as your hedgie isn't overweight, which it doesn't sound like she is, I wouldn't worry too much, especially if she is using her wheel.

I'll feel better when I get an odometer to see how much she runs. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm just going to get the kind you use for a bicycle to keep track of her wheel usage.

Hope this helps!


----------

