# Hedgie Awake During the Day!



## jackiehedgie (Sep 24, 2009)

My Hedgie's sleeping habbits have been off for the past week. Instead of sleeping a lot during the day, she's usually awake! Most of the time I see her (but not all the time), she is awake-- & I'm hoping she's at least sleeping when I am sleeping, but it's hard to tell how many hours of sleep she is getting. It's starting to get a little chilly outside (but it's Texas, so not terribly cold ) so I put a heating pad on low under her cage to keep her from shivering. This is my first Fall/Winter having her-- Do their sleeping habits change from season to season?


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## krbshappy71 (Jul 17, 2009)

Maybe she is waking up to noises around the house. She may just be waking when you peek in on her? I don't know what your setup is. We have ours in a spare bedroom and don't go into the room until evening hours when we're ready to get them up. We are very quiet if we do have to go in the room at other times. Mine might waken during the day but I wouldn't know because I'm not in there to see. 

You mention you now have a heating pad to keep her from shivering. Do you have other heating methods as well? Heating pads wont heat the air she breathes.


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## Bengall77 (Aug 1, 2009)

Quillbert, the little porker, wakes up during the day every once in a while to eat a few bites. Lol. As far as I can tell it isn't hurting him. Yours might be waking up because of noises. I wouldn't worry unless you see a significant decrease in eating and activity.


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## LarryT (May 12, 2009)

Is she getting enough light during the day?
At least around 12 hours or so of light a day is needed.


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

Is the heating pad only under half of the cage? Did this start after putting the heating pad in? When a hedgehog is too warm (which can happen with heating pads very easily, even on "low") they will come out of their hidey spots and try to find a cooler spot to sleep in the cage. A heating pad should only be under half the cage so the hedgehog has a cooler spot to go to if it gets too hot. If there's not a house where the heating pad isn't, she's likely to stay out the whole time trying to cool down. I'm betting it's too hot for her. If you put a thermometer on the cage bottom where it is, it's probably 80+ degrees Fahrenheit on that floor.

Heating pads are not the best way to heat. A ceramic heat emitter or a space heater would be a much better option due to the fact that you can control those temperatures easily with regulators. This also heats the whole environment so she never has to shiver.

If you want to keep the heating pad, only put it under half the cage--and don't use it if your cage has a glass bottom such as an aquarium (I don't know what kind of cage you have). Also put a sleep spot on both sides of the cage so she can choose where she wants to sleep.

Also, as LarryT mentioned, there should be a steady supply of light. You should try to turn the lights on and off at the same times every day, preferably 10-12 hours apart. This normal schedule will keep the hedgie from thinking that days are getting shorter when it gets darker earlier and therefore she needs to hibernate. At this point, I would say the problem is the heating pad, though.


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