# Pebbles doesn't run on her wheel anymore...



## Morg_elizabeth (Jan 6, 2016)

Pebbles I about 4 months old. She is a great hedgehog and is very sweet, but is no longer running on her wheel. She eats well and is health but just no longer runs. I have recently taken an internship about an hour and a half away. This leaves her alone for 3 days out of the week and she is used to being held and loved on everyday. I'm unsure if this is a reason why, but she used to love running on her wheel. Has anyone ever had this happen????


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## Katten (May 10, 2014)

Can you check her wheel and make sure it still turns properly? I've had a variety of small animals and tons of wheels, and sometimes they'll get gunked up and stop turning properly, which will discourage the animal from running. If you have a wheel that you can take apart, clean the whole thing thoroughly and then apply a very tiny amount of olive oil to the part that spins to help it turn better.


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## SARMADJOH (Feb 17, 2016)

She may be coming up on her 6 month quill. I got my baby Thorne when he was 5 months old, and he left quills in my sweater pocket on the drive home. His cage at the store had a wheel, so I gave him a wheel right away, but he didn't start running on it until I started moisturizing him a month later when he started dropping quills left and right.

If you don't already, start a full-body moisturizing regime to keep Pebbles comfortable. I use olive oil for Thorne because it is safe in case he licks some or gets it in his eyes or something crazy like that. I'm searching for a good syringe to use. but right now I just use a q-tip and dab some oil on his ears and dot it all over his body between the spines. I will probably continue his moisturizing process even once he is finished. Thorne is still growing in some adult spines even though his quilling is over. One thing to be careful with is not to overmoisturize to where your hedgehog looks like it is soaked, so the quills and skin can still breathe. But this way the quills come out easier and then the skin is more stretchy for the bigger spines to grow through, so it really helps with ingrown quills. Dry skin makes quilling in general a horrible experience.


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## twobytwopets (Feb 2, 2014)

Basic checks, temperature and lighting and is there any change in eating or drinking? 
Is there a new person doing daily care or anything else changed? 
What kind of wheel is it? Some wheels don't work as well as they grow.


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## Hedgehog Swag (Feb 19, 2016)

My little hedgie is just a youngster and her habits change like the wind. She loved the wheel for the first wee or so but as soon as I get her the "saucer" to play on the wheel has gone untouched. She also changes where she likes to sleep. She started by sleeping in her little sleeping bag then changed to sleeping in the igloo and now changed again and is sleeping in the tunnel, all within a two week period. One thing constant about where she sleep is she loves shreded fleece to borrow into.


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## Morg_elizabeth (Jan 6, 2016)

Pebble's heat is great. I have a termometer gage to keep her cage at 80 degrees and then a uv light to simulate the day cycle, because she isn't near any sunlight in my room. She is still very inactive lately. I am going to try olive oil as her skin is really dry. She is eating, drinking and is eliminating regularly. It's just very strange how lethargic she is, yet still eating and drinking well. Hopefully, she is just quilling and I can get her on a moisturizer regime to make her more comfortable. If y'all have any other ideas, I would love to try other things. Oh, nothing has really changed about her day to day other than I am not able to hold her everyday like I was last semester. I make sure to interact with her most nights.


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## JaredM (Apr 11, 2015)

80 is too warm and UV light is not beneficial to their day/night cycle. They need light, but not specifically sunlight. UV light supresses melatonin production in humans, but hedgies just need to be able to say "Hey, it's bright, time to sleep."

Try slowly dropping the temperature closer to 76 and see if she perks up, she may be feeling too hot to want to run.


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## [email protected] (Apr 24, 2018)

Our house stays 71 to 75 all day and night. We have a heat lamp in there and it stays about 80 most the time. do you think it could be why ours isn't running? We're also trying to figure out if she has wobbly hedgehog she seems to drag her back leg but it seems to switch. We changed her food because we wondered if she wasn't getting enough nutrients We did that yesterday and today she seemed much more active but not on the wheel..


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Please don't post on old threads, this one is from 2016. If you have a question you need to start your own thread.


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