# Sleep Schedule? Is she just lazy?



## amber.vroman (Nov 2, 2010)

I have run out of ideas. Fossil will not wake up unless I wake her up and she usually goes right back to sleep. Ok here is a run down of an average day/night.

I wake up around noonish and remove the blanket off of Fossil's cage and turn her light on. She is sleeping then. I leave for the day at 5pm for class then return at 1am. She is still sleeping when I get home. I count her kibble and record how much she has eaten. I then get her out for about a half an hour of cuddle time. She usually sleeps through cuddle time. After cuddle time I take her out of her cuddle sack and put her back in her cage. I also turn her light off around this time. She usually goes back to sleep and doesn't wake up unless I keep waking her up or until around 3-5 am.

At first I thought that it was because my boyfriend is often up late working on homework on his computer, but there have been plenty of nights that he hasn't been working. There is always a blanket over the top of her to block any light. It isn't sounds. If you watch my video ( 



 ) you can see that even me shoving cameras in her face does not bother her. In this video the lights are on. The tv and my boyfriend's computer is on, and my friend is being very obnoxious in the background. This was also not her usual time to wake up. This was just after her bath and a cage cleaning around 9 pm.

Is she just lazy?

The temperature in her cage is 77 degrees consistently. She 13 weeks old today. Her light is on from approximately 12pm-1am. 
(Sorry for the long post...I just wanted to be as detailed as possible.)


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## susanaproenca (Aug 14, 2010)

I think there is something wrong with her light schedule. If I understood right, her light stays on from 12pm to 1am, and off from 1am to 12pm, right?

Even though you have a blanket over the cage and probably a dark room, Fossil knows there's day light out there at 6am. They just know it. So her "night" is not starting at noon when you turn the light off, her night is starting at say 6-7am when the day starts outside. And she is having an awfully short "night" time because of that, and that might be why she doesn't wake up on her own. 

I have my girls on a 6am to 7pm light schedule. Every night Pete gets up around 8 and Mustard around 9. I suggest you try to change her shedule to something "closer to their natural habits" and see if it helps, like from 8am-8pm the light is on and after that it's off.


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## KathyTNY (Jan 21, 2011)

I am a new hedgehog mommy so I am only sharing MY hoggy's schedule to confirm what has already been said. I think a messed up light schedule is also the problem, in my newbie humble opinion.

Tiggy's light goes on at 6am and stays on till about 11:30pm. We have play time and snuggle time in the livingroom together which starts at about 9:00 pm and usually ends up with 5 to 10 minutes of palying in her toddler pool with a tp tube, eating worm and then snuggle time with her Momma till I take her up to her cage at 11:30pm, turn all the lights off (rest of family is asleep or in their rooms with their lights on and doors shut) and she starts her "me" time - eating, wheeling and chillin' - I hear her go off to her "hut" under her fleece blanket about 5-5:30am. 

I should add, she is 2 years old.

Good luck! KathyTNY


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

A third vote for an inappropriate light schedule...Snarf usually starts moving 1-2 hours AFTER his light has gone off...

If you don't already have one, get a timer and make sure there's at least 12-14 hours of light, then darkness for the rest of the time. Timers are cheap and easy to use.

The stickies talk about lighting under the Housing & Acc thread.


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## Puffers315 (Apr 19, 2010)

amber.vroman said:


> She usually goes back to sleep and doesn't wake up unless I keep waking her up or until around 3-5 am.


I'll also agree the light schedule probably needs to be tweaked a little, but the quote above confuses me, are you saying she gets up on her own between 3 and 5am? I only ask because some hogs are more active in the dawning hours, my guys are very much like this.

Light Schedule 10am - 10pm

My boy Loki wakes up at 10:30, eats his treat (chicken) and then wheels for two hours and goes back to sleep. Fast forward to 5am and he gets up and wheels and eats his kibble for two hours, goes back to bed at 7am.

My girl Hester who is getting to be fat and lazy gets up at 11pm, wheels for 15 minutes, eats, and then either naps at the base of her loft tube or goes back to bed until 4am. At 4am, she's up for a good 3 hours wheeling.


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## MoonBean (Feb 22, 2011)

Juju has his light on from 8am till 10pm now. Around 9 I get him out for play time in his playpen for about an hour or two, depending on how long he stays active. If he's a sleepy guy some of that time is snuggle time. There are people up at my house until 2-3am, so sometimes when I put him back around 11, he goes back to sleep until the house gets quiet. He will wheel and eat for about an hour then, and is up again around 5 for more wheeling and eating. He usually goes back to sleep around 7 am. He might come out of his cage for a little while during the day usually no more than 30 mins or so as he is usually sleepy and grumpy. He does seem way more active as far as wheeling goes in the early morning than in the evening.

Perhaps if you try changing her lighting to an earlier time, she will come out around the time you come home from school? Maybe if she gets a couple hours of dark right before cuddle time she will be perkier for you.


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## amber.vroman (Nov 2, 2010)

Puffers315 said:


> amber.vroman said:
> 
> 
> > She usually goes back to sleep and doesn't wake up unless I keep waking her up or until around 3-5 am.
> ...


This does sound like Fossil. She will wake up for a little while and run, but then goes back to sleep until around 4 am.



MissC said:


> A third vote for an inappropriate light schedule...Snarf usually starts moving 1-2 hours AFTER his light has gone off...
> 
> If you don't already have one, get a timer and make sure there's at least 12-14 hours of light, then darkness for the rest of the time. Timers are cheap and easy to use.
> 
> The stickies talk about lighting under the Housing & Acc thread.


MissC do you know where I can get an appropriate timer? I would like to adjust her light schedule but I can't do this without a timer because I am at school from 5pm-1am

Thank you for all of the replies. I am going to adjust her schedule by getting a timer. If she still doesn't wake up until 4am I guess that means that she is just active at dawn.

Thanks again guys.


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## MissC (Nov 15, 2010)

Mine is part of a powerbar - half the outlets are on a timer. It was more expensive cuz there's 10 outlets and it's digital. I have seen them under $20, tho' if the timer isn't digital. I just got mine at the local hardware store. If you live near a Walmart, that's where I'd go...


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## CritterHeaven (Feb 21, 2011)

Home depot or Lowes have simple effective timers you plug in to an outlet and you plug a normal lamp into them


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## karidaluv (Jul 26, 2010)

We trained Rex so he knows when to wake up. For awhile he was waking up at 4pm to eat and run on the wheel, staying up till around 4am and then sleeping all day. Now that he's moved out of the second bedroom and in to the livingroom, he loves the noise and sleeps 9am to 9pm. I wake him up around 8:30ish if he's not up by then to cuddle for an hour or run around, then I put him back and he eats, runs all night, and knocks out by 9. 

I think your light schedule should be however you feel is best to spend time with your hedgie. Hope you find an ideal one!

Oh, and we don't turn any lights on in the house most of the time, but the natural light from a window above our sliding door is visible from his cage. Maybe that helps. Not sure.


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## maddi.hl (Aug 15, 2018)

*very lazy hedgehog*

my 1 year old hedgehog penelope doesn't play at all! when i first got her when she was about a month or 2 old, she loved running on her wheel and being in her running ball going all around the house. but ever since we moved to a new house shes been super lazy. i thought it would just take some time for her to get used to the new house but it never happened! shes getting very big and im concerned that she will become obese. i have tried taking her hideouts from her cage and letting her roam around but even then she just sits and eats and waits until i put them back in the cage. i need some advice to make her more active, someone help please!!


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

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