# Not running on her wheel!! :(



## EmilyPower (Aug 26, 2013)

My hedgehog was staying at my boyfriends house for the last 3 months and for the last few days he said she hasn't been running on her wheel. He said that he heard her one night and she wasn't really running but sort of walking. The wheel we have it silent so it is possible she was only walking when he looked. 3 days ago I brought her back to my house and she wasn't nervous or anything and seemed to recognize her surroundings and was happy playing. Since she's been here, I hear her eatind drinking in the night but she hasn t been running on her wheel and there's no poo or pee anywhere around her cage. Why isn't she running!? I'm really worried..


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Is there anything different about the wheel? Has it gotten tilted a bit too far forward or something like that? How do her nails look, are they too long? Sometimes that will make a hedgie stop running.

Is her room dark enough for her? Some hedgehogs are picky about light in their room at night. What about temperature? Warm enough & steady?


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## EmilyPower (Aug 26, 2013)

Her front nails might be a bit long so that could be it. Other than that her wheel is tilted the same way it always has been, the temperature is kept at about 23-25 in my rooom all the time and the only possible light in my room is from the streetlight outside. She usually comes out when I turn off my lamp.


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## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

Try trimming nails first.

How big is your wheel? Is it at least 12" diameter (line through the center)? And how long is your hedgehog? When she's on the wheel, does her back have to arch at all? 

My little guy recently stopped running as much, and walked when he did run. Previous times he's done this has been because his nails were too long (picky fellow!), but this time we think it was because he tweaked his back during an epic 13km run, and he had to arch his back to run on the wheel, re-compressing it so it hurt. When we set him down to just run around on flat ground, he runs like a total mad fiend at top speed for hours.


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## EmilyPower (Aug 26, 2013)

I have a corolina storm bucket wheel and no I'm not sure if she arcs her back to run because I never see her run because I"m always asleep! Lol! She's not very long. I'll try cutting her nails and see if that makes a difference. I have a feeling it could also be since her surroundings have changed but she's not nervous here and plays like she normally does


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## Gemmy (Nov 26, 2013)

Mine did the same thing. I think it was a bedding change though, since I put in the older kind and she ran around her cage for about an hour. Has anything like that changed?


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## MarleeG (Nov 14, 2013)

I think that the same thing is currently happening to my hedgie. She had a wood bedding before (the safe kind, no cedar or anything!) and it was sticking to all of her toys and just generally making a mess. So I decided to change it to carefresh bedding and ever since then she has not been running as much. She is eating and drinking, and there is poop in her favorite pooping corner, but I have not been hearing her run, or finding poop on her wheel like I usually would. Did you hedgie ever get over the bedding change? Or did you have to go back to the original kind?


Gemmy said:


> Mine did the same thing. I think it was a bedding change though, since I put in the older kind and she ran around her cage for about an hour. Has anything like that changed?


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