# Just sitting in wheel



## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

So I have made many posts about Thistle, and we are progressing well. I take her out of her cage and sit her in my lap and handle her for about 30 minutes everyday. She is slowly, very slowly, warming up to me. 

When I first got her, she ran on her wheel almost every single night. I didn't clean her wheel for the first few days so she felt more at home. Now that I have started cleaning her wheel, she refuses to run on it. Sometimes I will come and check up on her in the night, and I will see her just sitting inside her wheel, but I never hear her run on it anymore.

The wheel works perfectly, and she used it before I cleaned it. I would hate to stop cleaning her wheel, that's not sanitary for me or her.


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## LarryT (May 12, 2009)

What are you using to clean the wheel?


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## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

LarryT said:


> What are you using to clean the wheel?


Water and only water. Read online that cleaners and soaps would wipe away the scent and can potentially harm them.


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

I have never heard of that before. You can wash the wheel 50/50 vinegar water solution. It isn't harmful for your hedgie at all.


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## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

SquirtleSquirt said:


> I have never heard of that before. You can wash the wheel 50/50 vinegar water solution. It isn't harmful for your hedgie at all.


Well, whether what I read was true or not, she still won't run. I am worried her nails may be hurting her, but she does not trust me enough to cut them yet, and she had a bath a week and a half ago. I would hate to risk drying out her skin just to clip nails.


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

What you can do is not give your hedgie a full bath, but a foot bath. Fill the water just enough it goes up to your hedgie's ankles and try cutting the nails.


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## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

SquirtleSquirt said:


> What you can do is not give your hedgie a full bath, but a foot bath. Fill the water just enough it goes up to your hedgie's ankles and try cutting the nails.


She does not trust me enough. I have been trying to get her used to be for 2 almost 3 weeks now and it feels like we're taking steps backwards. When i try to take her out of her cage she no longer just pops and hisses, she bucks up in the air. I don't know what to do anymore, i've been so patient with her.


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

If her nails are stopping her from wheeling then they must be painful for her. If you can't cut them you'll have to take her to the vet to have them lightly sedate her and clip them for her. Her behaviour change also sounds like it could be related to that. If her feet are painful then it probably hurts to be picked up.


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## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

nikki said:


> If her nails are stopping her from wheeling then they must be painful for her. If you can't cut them you'll have to take her to the vet to have them lightly sedate her and clip them for her. Her behaviour change also sounds like it could be related to that. If her feet are painful then it probably hurts to be picked up.


Okay. Thank you. I will try to clip her nails and if she refuses to let me, I will look for a good vet for her. Money is not an issue, I will spend as much as she needs but I want her to be in good hands.


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## Artemis-Ichiro (Jan 22, 2016)

If you are in America I'd suggest you get vet insurance for her. It's a really good thing to have.


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## Needles (Oct 3, 2016)

Perhaps the wheel is too small for her (either height or width)? We had an 8" that she used initially but then abandoned. We have upgraded to a 12" that is a bit wider and she likes it better.


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## Mix (Nov 5, 2016)

Her wheel is fine, I think it's 10 or 12 inches high and im not sure how wide (much wider than her), turns out when I cleaned her wheel, it stopped making the squeaky noise it was making and I could no longer hear her using it, and when I came in to check on her should would stop because I scared her!


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