# New Owners Lots of Questions.



## cookieboots (Aug 8, 2011)

We got our Cookieboots from a friend who's job changed and didn't have the time to care for her. Her current house is a average sized guinea pig cage. We are using "Carefresh" as the bedding/floor/cover of the cage and she has a wooden critter house with a old T-shirt of mine. Now I know as with everything there are extremes...caring to much for your animal and being almost fanatical and also caring to little. We love our Cookieboots but can shoot to give her middle class digs/lifestyle. Her current cage is not large enough for her wheel so we give her 2hours in a tub a night with the wheel and a blanket and she seems to scoot for most of it. We are looking to upgrade her digs without taking up to much of our apartment or breaking our bank. I have scrolled though your examples of housing and my god all seem so much better then what she has. She is a little over a year old so I don't know if we can liter train her. I have been starring at this walmart shelving unit for some time and something about it screams "MAKE ME INTO A HEDGIE HOUSE". But for now I will ask for y'alls advice. I know we could simply buy a larger cage but we are trying to do a little better. I am average with tools so building her a cage if its a simple design wouldn't be hard but I would need direction and advice and perhaps schematics if possible. We are looking to perhaps make a collapsable pen area that we can set up each night for her to scoot in with her wheel and then in the morning place her back in her cage. OH one last thing (Sorry I'm all over the place she got thrust on us before we could do research) She has a drinking bottle similar to most rodents bottles...ie the hanging bottle with the little ball she has to nibble or move the ball to get water. Is this bad? I've seen a lot of dishes in your houses. If someone could just sorta give me the ins and outs of proper cage for hedgies as well as advice or help with getting her in a happy home that would be great. Thank you all so much.


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2011)

Anything wood related can harbor mites which can be bad news for your hedgehog I would switch to an igloo.

It concerns me and this is just my opinion that you're working so hard to get a playpen and letting her our into a wheel. The wheel should be freely available to a hedgehog whenever they choose some hedgehogs can run up to 5 to 10 miles in a given night and two hours is not enough time to do that.

A C & C Cage or a Pets Deluxe XL can hold a wheel in the cage for your hedgehog, plus they can escape a playpen and I wouldn't want you to be frantically searching for your hedgehog in the morning.

I would focus on expanding the cage be it by Do It Yourself means or by purchasing something and placing him in it a play pen is a hour or two recreation area with some toys and moving their wheel if wanted, it has a variety for their inquisitive and exploratory nature. You can get a kiddie or pet pool to accomplish this with little expense however like most any play pen a hedgehog can escape so supervising is recommended 

BTW if she has a wheel all the time you won't have to worry about litter training most likely it will all be on the wheel 

Fleece is the recommendation for lining your hedgehogs floor around here as it isn't going to harbor mites nor cause skin issues and is cheaper in the long run


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## ProjectParanoia (Jan 27, 2010)

Along with TWCOGAR's advice, remember that there are ways you wouldn't have to pay full price for a great sized cage. Since it's yard sale time of year, scoot about those. You can check craigslist and kijiji. You said you're crafty, so you may be able to attach two cages together using PVC pipes or something. Just some alternate ideas


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## cookieboots (Aug 8, 2011)

What I am working hard to do is to give her an area where she has space and freedom to roam as well as scoot in her wheel, be it a playpen area or extra large cage. I know she is quite the climber because first night with us I saw her trying to ninja out of her cage. When caught she looked with a "What???" face then hissed and fell to the bottom and hissed some more. Has anyone ever posted a "How to" video on making their hedgie deluxe apartment in the sky? Schools just started up again and my time to skim posts has dwindled...DAM YOU NEUROSCIENCE BIOCHEMISTRY AND CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY!!!! Hopefully my friends mom who has built some very impressive bird cages and lizard cages has a cage I could use. The only really pros to the pen is its moveable and doesnt have to take up a lot of space during the day. Our apartment is already tiny and normal furniture has it cluttered. As for liter training her its mostly the corners I see her poop in, aside from her wheel so she can fling it.


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## Daleo (Jun 1, 2011)

I would do a C&C cage. They are cheap and fairly simple to setup. Any appropriate hedgehog cage is going to take up about 2'x4' area. Plus your hedgie will truly enjoy a wheel she/he can run in all the time.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Rather than having a small cage for her to sleep in during the day AND a pen that you set up as a "night-time cage" with her wheel and stuff... I think you'd be better off just making a cage big enough for her wheel. You'd be doing the hedgie AND yourself a huge favor.  

C&C cages are cheap and work perfectly for hedgie cages. I built mine for $40 (that includes everything - cubes, corrugated plastic and zip ties (which is all you need)).


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## Daleo (Jun 1, 2011)

I built mine today.

coroplast- 16 dollars
cubes- I had them laying around FREE
zip ties- 3 dollars

I figure cubes would cost around 20 dollars if I had to get them, so that's not bad at all!


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## cookieboots (Aug 8, 2011)

I really wish I could make my own cage but I figure buying one at this point will be better. Hopefully I can splice the 2 cages together with the cube parts I am getting from a friend.


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