# A not-so-lovely surprise...



## Mohawk (Mar 6, 2016)

Hello everyone! This is my first post and I should've probably introduced myself first but this is really urgent.

So my dad walks in this morning and tells me we will be leaving for 4 days in a week from now. And I freak out, of course, because I am a first-time hedgehog owner and even though I was making plans for how Mohawk will spend her summer, I had not thought of any sudden come-ups like that! :'( We generally do not travel in spring and my dad wanted to gift us this trip as a surprise...

So I will give you guys some background information in case that would help. I live in southern Greece (Athens). The weather is generally warm here. Mohawk lives in modified bins connected with a PVC pipe. I do not use a CHE in her cage. I have a space heater with a thermostat. She has a digital thermometer in her cage. She also has a DIY bucket wheel (sometimes she uses it some others not), her food and water bowl, a DIY plastic igloo with fleece strips in it, her snuggle sack, an egg-toy (the one that makes a noise if you shake it), a toilet paper roll, a DIY tunnel and a little medallion that hangs on one side of her 'bedroom' cage.


Her cage is 4,2sqft I think, it's basically an 60LT bin and a 52LT bin connected. One bin is lined with 3 layers of fleece (her bedroom) the other is filled with Chipsi wood shavings (I place them in a net and shake the dust off and also place them in the sun to make them a bit safer). She is partially litter trained in that I rarely find poop in her fleece cage.


Mohawk has a typical hedgie temperament, she has her good and bad moments but will generally let us handle her at all times. She's energetic and gets really hyper sometimes but she likes to cuddle on my bed as well xD.

I've only had her for a couple of months.




In my area there is no such thing as a 'hedgie-sitter'. ****, people can't even find dog-sitters. Hedgehogs are not a popular pet here and very few people own one. I could pay to have her boarded in the only exotic pet clinic in Athens. But, I do not trust them, I have not heard good stuff about them and they ask for an unreasonably large amount of money. I wouldn't mind the money if I knew they would treat her right but my friend left her snake there and when she went to pick it up they gave her a different snake. No kidding. And they tried to convince her it was the same snake.

Obviously I'm never taking Mohawk to that place.


I have few friends and even fewer that could keep her in their place. All of my friends have cats or dogs. Mohawk does fine with my dog but that's mostly because he avoids her. I don't think it's safe and I don't want to burden anyone with her care because I understand they don't know a thing about hedgehogs and I don't want to stress them. 

I would leave her at my boyfriend's but the walls in his apartment are very thin. She would probably bother his parents at night like, A LOT with all her wheeling and stuff.


The last option would be to leave her at the entrance to our house and have a lady that comes over sometimes change her food and water. I doubt she would clean her cage/wheel though. Also it can get cold down there sometimes and it's an open space so I can't use the space heater.



I cannot leave her at the breeder where I got her from, because she is an unemployed woman with two kids that lives with her parents. She doesn't have the space in her home for Mohawk's cage and I don't think I would burden her with all that either. She doesn't state that she hosts hedgehogs anywhere. The only other breeders in my area are a family that may have the space and all but they don't state that they board hedgehogs anywhere either. 

I am not so sure if I could bring her with me. Her bins are too big to fit in the car. I have a smaller cage (2sqft total) that I used to house my dwarf bunny in. I could probably fit a wheel in there, a hide and her food/water bowls. I would also have to buy a CHE i suppose. But what if she feels uncomfortable staying in a place that is half the size of her home? Even though it's only 4 days I understand they get very stressed by sudden environment changes...
I don't know the hotels policy on pet hedgehogs though. They don't state anything about pets in general. I think if I call and ask for hedgehogs they will probably be very suspicious/make fun of me because they won't know what they are (I'm telling you people here are most likely uneducated when it comes to exotics).


Also it is a very long drive to there (close to 10 hours) and she has never been in a car for more than 1 hour. What if she doesn't cope well?



I would really appreciate any advice/solutions/alternatives. Sorry for the long post but I am really upset right now because the only solution to my problem seems to be me staying home to look after her (which would upset my dad because he wanted to gift this trip to us and it is important for him...)


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## nicole92 (Dec 21, 2015)

Would it be possible to leave a key for your boyfriend and have him come over and feed, check on, and play with Mohawk for a little bit each day? Why would you have to move Mohawk to a different place if you had that lady come over for feeding? If you left Mohawk where he was and she came to feed, Mohawk would have less changes and still be warm.
Have you considered Mohawks vet? My little guy has had 3 vets so far (we went throught a few before finding one we really like) all of them will board. It can be expensive to board at the vet but may be worth it if boarding is your only option and the other boarding place does not sound like a good choice. With a vet you know your animal is in good hands.
You could also consider a family member who may be able to take care of him while you are gone. Maybe you have someone in the area that is not going on the trip that you could have come over and Tae care of your hedgehog? 
Good luck!


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## Mohawk (Mar 6, 2016)

nicole92 said:


> Would it be possible to leave a key for your boyfriend and have him come over and feed, check on, and play with Mohawk for a little bit each day? Why would you have to move Mohawk to a different place if you had that lady come over for feeding? If you left Mohawk where he was and she came to feed, Mohawk would have less changes and still be warm.
> Have you considered Mohawks vet? My little guy has had 3 vets so far (we went throught a few before finding one we really like) all of them will board. It can be expensive to board at the vet but may be worth it if boarding is your only option and the other boarding place does not sound like a good choice. With a vet you know your animal is in good hands.
> You could also consider a family member who may be able to take care of him while you are gone. Maybe you have someone in the area that is not going on the trip that you could have come over and Tae care of your hedgehog?
> Good luck!


 Thanks for replying and for all those suggestions 

The thing is that I live with my parents and my father will have our house locked and with an alarm when we're gone. The lady knows the passcode to our entrance alarm but not to the house alarm and he doesn't want to let her in the house... :-/ I know it's weird but he won't back off..

So even if my boyfriend could come over to feed her, she still would have to be placed in the entrance and there still would be that issue with heating...
And no, I don't have any other family members in the area.

I'm probably just going to stay home :-/ I'm just devastated because my parents already weren't very into Mohawk and now that she'll be the cause for me not going they won't like her at all. I mean it's not like they have paid for anything and she's totally my responsibility but because I share a house with them it can be extremely nerve-racking when they don't like her... :-(


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## shinydistraction (Jul 6, 2014)

Why don't you sit down and have a good conversation with everyone involved about all your options? It really sounds like you're internalizing the problem and not really giving anyone a chance to help you.

It could be that your boyfriends parents wouldn't mind the little extra noise from the wheel. It could be that your father might be amenable to coming up with a solution or compromise. You won't know until you ask. I know you're having difficulties with anxiety over the whole issue, but the first step is to calmly and rationally talk things out with people.


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## Mohawk (Mar 6, 2016)

shinydistraction said:


> Why don't you sit down and have a good conversation with everyone involved about all your options? It really sounds like you're internalizing the problem and not really giving anyone a chance to help you.
> 
> It could be that your boyfriends parents wouldn't mind the little extra noise from the wheel. It could be that your father might be amenable to coming up with a solution or compromise. You won't know until you ask. I know you're having difficulties with anxiety over the whole issue, but the first step is to calmly and rationally talk things out with people.


 Thank you for your replies  I will try to talk to my father tomorrow. Perhaps he will consider it differently. My boyfriend really wants to help but I really don't think his parents would be ok with Mohawk in their house...plus he sleeps with his cat. His very naughty cat.


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## Mohawk (Mar 6, 2016)

I'm sorry for double posting but I thought I ought to thank you guys for helping me out. It may have been a couple of posts only but still I feel very comfortable knowing that I can come here and talk about what worries me.

I talked to my parents. They understood (mostly my mom, who is generally very supportive even though she doesn't really like Mohawk) and agreed they will lend me money to buy a CHE. I did not initially need a CHE because I was planning to keep Mohawk at home with me for at least this Easter and she has her space heater with the thermostat and does fine on that. So I was planning to do research and order things later. Now it's a bit of a hussle but at least with a CHE I will be able to leave her downstairs (we have a small room that my grand-grand mother used to sleep in and when we go away we put our birds' cages there) and have my boyfriend or that lady come check on her daily...


Thank you for your advice.


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