# Is my hedgehog depressed?



## ohnojojo (Dec 2, 2014)

My hedgehog hasn't been running on her wheel for like two weeks now and is starting to poop and pee all around her cage instead of in her litter box like she has been for the past year. I'm beginning to think that my hedgehog eats too much so I'm giving her less food and she seems to have out-grown her wheel. I ordered a larger hedgehog wheel which I'm about to receive tonight, so we'll see how that goes. My hedgehog doesn't seem to have any health problems but I'm going to set up a vet visit for her soon. Has anybody else had similar problems? If so, how did you resolve the issue?

tldr: fat hedgehog won't run on wheel and poops all over the place even though she is litter box trained. Is she depressed?


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

First off you should never restrict the amount of food you give your hedgehog. If you think she is overweight change to a lower fat food but keep giving the same amount. I doubt she's depressed. The change in habits is probably because she can't run on her wheel. What kind of wheel did you get for her?


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

I have a chub monster too and I have tried countless different things to get her running again-- she's never liked to run much, and as she grew she stopped entirely. The only way to get my girl to run is by stressing her out in some way. This has led me to wonder if hedgehogs get lazy if they feel too comfortable in their environment, and maybe get bored. 

My girl has also been pooping all over as well as in her litter box lately, and sometimes I think it's laziness and other times I think it's a behavior thing, since she tends to do it on nights when I break routine and don't get her out, and she has also done it consistently since she started sharing her room with another hedgie.

So the first thing I would wonder is if anything has changed in the environment where your hedgie is kept (too much light at night, too much noise) or if your hedgehog responds to adding new stimulation in the cage or a change-up in routine.


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## Amanda1987 (Jan 30, 2015)

Yeah I've had problems getting mine to stick to a good excercise amount too.. they seem to get overweight so easily haha. You must admit that it would get easy to get lazy with us giving them their favorite foods all the time. I compare it to us getting the best foods we could think of... I know I would gain weight haha

__________________
My Hedgie's name is Joey and he is 2 years old.


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## ohnojojo (Dec 2, 2014)

Update: So now my hedgehog has one medium CSB wheel and one large CSB wheel, she seems to be eating less by herself for some reason, maybe she's psychic or self conscious about her weight (probs not). I'm taking her to the vet this weekend, just for a standard check-up where I'll bring up the behavior change. She's stopped pooping everywhere in her cage, and started pooping in her litterbox again, for no apparent reason.
I have 2 wheels in there, hoping she'll run on one of them. I don't think she has? But today I found a turd on the new large wheel. Knowing how weird she is, she may have just pooped on the wheel and didn't actually run.

@Nikki I already have one of the lowest fat content cat foods out on the market and I don't feel like changing her primary food. Haven't had a green poo in ages, I want to keep it that way.

Overall I think she's fine, just lazy and weird... But I can't help be neurotic about her health, I guess preventative measures are better than dealing with health issues when they arise.


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