# Is my hedgie getting dehydrated?



## prathyush27 (Oct 17, 2017)

Me and my girlfriend got a new baby hedgehog a 3 days ago. On the first night, he seemed to find his way around the cage and drank straight from the bottle. But from the next day, he's been going to what seems like a source of leak from the bottle which is way too little to fix anymore. It leaks maybe a tiny drop once every few minutes. He just goes near the leak and starts licking on the wall that has those drops of water on it. We placed another bottle as well and pointed him to it and he drinks once in a while from there but goes to the leak source most of the times. The water level in either bottle has not changed much and we don't know how much water they usually drink. What do we do about it?


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Try using a bowl instead. Breeders suggest bottles but, to be blunt, they're wrong. I know we're just random internet people, but if you think about where a Hedgehog would be drinking from in the wild, a bowl makes a lot more sense. Chances are they'd drink from a puddle or a pond or something rather than a giant bottle flying around Africa. No idea why breeders and pet store folks recommend bottles apart from it's what they've always used.

A good, small ceramic bowl that's heavy is what you need. They have ones at most pet stores that are a bit of a funny shape but it's better for them ergonomically. Don't want them getting into strange positions to drink.

You should clean the bowl every day with dish soap and water if you can. As hedgeface will probably drink from it, walk through it with poop feet, and drink from it again and not give a hoot.

You can buy the same type of bowl for their cat food. Food bowl will also need daily cleaning because hedgehogs are messy eaters. 

Hope this helps!


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Also even if you switch to a bowl, don't worry about hedgie not drinking too much. They often run around in the desert, and aren't very big so they don't drink like dogs do.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

While they don't drink much compared to other animals, it's still possible for them to get dehydrated even while drinking water from a bowl. Dry kibble diets aren't natural for most animals, and we know some (cats in particular) have a difficult time drinking enough water to make up for the lack of hydration in their diet. Some signs of dehydration to watch for in a hedgehog include urine color (should be light yellow to clear, not dark/bright yellow) and you can pinch their skin together to do a quick dehydration test - it should immediately return to normal, if it holds position for longer than a second, they're dehydrated. 

If you notice your hedgehog doesn't seem to drink much & frequently seems to have dark urine or constipation issues, it's not a bad idea to add some wet food or more fresh/cooked foods to their diet, or try adding some water to their kibble (offer a bowl of regular kibble as well in case they refuse to eat it at all).


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Yeah but it sounds like their hog is trying to drink little drops of water from a bottle. Therefore a bowl is a better option, as it's a bunch of water on their height level for them to drink from, drastically reducing the chance of dehydration. Give them 3 bowls if you're worried.

Think the OPs concern is easily addressed without the need to get theoretical.

I'll post a pic of the bowls I use. Quite cheap if you want to get a bunch of them from more water if you're worried.


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## prathyush27 (Oct 17, 2017)

Thank you guys for the advice. I was afraid he might tip a bowl over and get his bedding all wet. I ordered a ceramic bowl online now. In the mean time, my girlfriend cut a Styrofoam cup into the shape of a bowl and he drank a lot of water from it just now.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yes, switching to a bowl is likely to fix the issue, either totally or mostly. I didn't disagree with that (and didn't say anything since it'd already been covered). I just wanted to clarify re: the not drinking much part because it is still a common problem for a lot of hedgehogs. And wanted to mention other methods to gauge for possible dehydration since it can be so difficult to tell whether they're drinking enough by just trying to measure their water intake.


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## prathyush27 (Oct 17, 2017)

I will still use your method to check him for dehydration once in a while. I don't want my little Oliver to get dehydrated.


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Yeah. No one wants a thirsty hog! The heavy bowl will help. They enjoy flipping their belongings upside down for unknowns reasons and a heavy bowl will help stop that. Means more access to water throughout the night.


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## Marissa90 (Sep 5, 2017)

My hedgehog drinks from a heavy ceramic bowl, if it?s a mess your worried about- it?s inevitable lol. I tidy up my hedgies cage every night before bed, and in the morning it looks like a tornado passed through. Her food bowl is in her water bowl, her fleece is pulled up and shoved in a corner, her straberry house is flipped upside down. Sometimes they just play hard, you?ll constantly be cleaning up after them lol.


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Yeah but the water bowl is among the most important items you don't want being flipped over all the time.

Not saying with a ceramic heavy bowl it can't be flipped, but it's trickier for hogness to do. 

A flipped over bowl means no more water for the night apart from what the fleece absorbs, and it probably isn't great for hedgie to try and chew water out of the fleece. And water generally isn't very warm and could spill all over fleece that hogface wants to dive under if they're of that variety. Also if water spills onto poop and it gets everywhere... Yikes. 

Basically the best bowl your hog can drink from is a necessity for hogs.

Funny story though:

I gave my hog a toy rat to see if she liked stuffed animals. I went to look in on her the next day and she had drowned the rat in her dish and pooped on him in the dish! Never pooped in her water dish before, and hasn't since. Made me laugh. Needless to say she doesn't appear to enjoy sharing her area with stuffed rats!


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

If you're concerned about the water dish getting tipped over you can glue it to a ceramic tile.


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## AlexWG (Jan 3, 2017)

Well that's a good idea, how did you think of that? More importantly why didn't I??? 

Also it gives hedgie a ceramic tile to splat on when it's too hot! Cool.


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