# Heating Question



## yaoigirl (Dec 10, 2008)

I will be getting my hedgehog soon and I have a question about heating. His cage will be two storage bins attached to each other. The temperature in the house fluctuates from 72*F to 77*F when the air comes on and off. I was wondering if that is too much of a fluctuation that could possibly cause a hibernation attempt. If this would cause a hibernation attempt what would be the best way to keep the temperature at a desirable temperature?


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

That much fluctuation can cause hibernation for some hedgies. Others won't even notice. The best thing to do is simply shut the vent in the hedgie's room. That way there won't be a breeze coming into the cage and giving the possibility of chilling him. Just keep an eye out to be sure it doesn't get too hot in there. You might also set the temperature so it doesn't go below 73-74 and make sure the cage is on the other side of the room away from the vent.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Hmmmm....Zalea's way is much easier, but for another option...

Would it be possible to hook up an emitter clamped to a table of sorts? So that the emitter will not be resting on the cage, but sort of like those standing lamps, pointed down at the cage. The "lamps" mostly all come with some sort of clamp at the ends, at least from what I've seen, so if you can put something next to the cage, for the emitter to clamp onto, then heat should still get to the cage without heating the plastic (?) This is all theory, if someone can pipe in and tell me if I'm wrong, please do so ^_^

Then set the thermostat to ~75, so when the room drops down, the emitter will turn on, keeping the cage at around 75-77, and it will auto turn off when the room is warmer.


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## super_sonic (May 20, 2009)

im not sure if this was the post i was reading about help for heating or not my laptop died on me and i lost the page  , but here i go anyway since it's somewhat on topic

i went to walmart a few years back and bought a space heater for my bedroom, i have no heating or cooling going to the room besides that or my window which is only open during the spring summer and fall seasons to let some fresh air in besides having my door open, the heater will make the room as hot or cold as i want, it has a mini ac unit inside tp keep the temp. at 77 degrees during the night so that sonic can have his night life since hedgies are nocturnal. during the day i keep his lamp on which is set to 79 degrees. but even though it is set to 79 the cage temp reads around 76.7 and the other section of the cage is 75.4. i have read that space heaters are great for hedgehogs because on most of them they turn on or off at a certain temp. and because they can hibernate with the temp too high or too low thermostats are highly recommended. petsmart has some pretty decent heating lamps, that have thermostats built in to set the temp. at what you like. i try to keep sonic's cage between 75 and 78 degrees. so if your hedgie is bunking with you in your room, you could try eithor one of those ideas. i feel that it works great for me.

although i may be wrong about what people think of space heaters on this site, several others highly recommend it to keep the entire room set to a solid enviroment for your hedgehog.

i also have a questioon about heating whilst i am posting on this thread, if hedgehogs are desert animals, which desert is constantly between 75 and 80 degrees? i may be wrong but i have always been told that deserts are scortching during the day and often become freezing at night. some reaching well above 100 degrees during the day and below freezing at night, im just curious :?:


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## FiaSpice (Jan 16, 2009)

Zalea said:


> That much fluctuation can cause hibernation for some hedgies. Others won't even notice. The best thing to do is simply shut the vent in the hedgie's room. That way there won't be a breeze coming into the cage and giving the possibility of chilling him. Just keep an eye out to be sure it doesn't get too hot in there. You might also set the temperature so it doesn't go below 73-74 and make sure the cage is on the other side of the room away from the vent.


That's exactly what I did when I was living with my parents. Since we had central air, I shut the vent and that was all right.


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

super_sonic said:


> i also have a questioon about heating whilst i am posting on this thread, if hedgehogs are desert animals, which desert is constantly between 75 and 80 degrees? i may be wrong but i have always been told that deserts are scortching during the day and often become freezing at night. some reaching well above 100 degrees during the day and below freezing at night, im just curious :?:


Where do you get that they're desert creatures? The original hedgehogs that ours come from came from Africa, but mainly from savanna zones. Those hedgehogs also had the ability to hibernate, but ours have lost the ability through domestication. Even if hedgies that ours came from originally dealt with higher temperatures, the hedgies most people have as pets have come through breeding to be able to cope best with temperatures 72-80.
I'm not an expert so that may be slightly off, but that's my understanding of the origins and the temperature range.


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## HedgeMom (Nov 7, 2008)

Zalea said:


> Where do you get that they're desert creatures? The original hedgehogs that ours come from came from Africa, but mainly from savanna zones. Those hedgehogs also had the ability to hibernate, but ours have lost the ability through domestication. Even if hedgies that ours came from originally dealt with higher temperatures, the hedgies most people have as pets have come through breeding to be able to cope best with temperatures 72-80.
> I'm not an expert so that may be slightly off, but that's my understanding of the origins and the temperature range.


Where do you get that they aren't desert creatures? Both Algerian and Desert Long Eared hedgehogs have been found in desert regions. Which is how they learned to eat scorpions.

In addition, they've not lost the ability to hibernate based on domestication, they've never been able to hibernate. They estivate. They have no brown body fat and that hasn't been bred out of them. In addition, temperature requires have not been bred into them. They need the same temps in captivity that they need in the wild. Some can adapt, some can't.


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## Zalea (Sep 12, 2008)

Interesting. I've never heard about scorpions. This is where I was drawing my information from.

http://wiki.hedgehogcentral.com/tiki-in ... te-Bellied:


> The Four-toed Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris), or African Pygmy Hedgehog, is a small species of hedgehog found throughout much of the south-Saharan African countries, from Senegal and Mauritania in the west, to Sudan in the east, and it has been recorded as far south as Zambia. Populations tend to be scattered between suitable savannah or cropland habitats, avoiding forested areas.
> 
> This species tends to prefer temperatures between 24 and 30 °C. When it is hotter than that, it tends to find shelter in a burrow and go into a state of estivation, or when it is colder it goes into a state of hibernation in order to conserve energy.


http://wiki.hedgehogcentral.com/tiki-in ... e=Algerian:


> Very little is actually known about the preferred habitat of the North African Hedgehog. It has been found in Mediterranean conifer and mixed forest climates as are present in southern mountainous regions of Spain and northern Africa. In northern Africa, it can be found from Morocco to Libya, but is not able to survive in dry desert regions around this area. It can be found in other warmer regions as well, including parts of France, the Canary Islands, and the Balearics. Within these regions, it can often be spotted in garden and park areas.


I wasn't addressing Egyptian hedgies earlier as the typical pets that I've heard about usually are four-toed or algerian. The only egyptian ones I'm familiar with are long-eared and I don't know much about them.

I've also always heard that they've lost the ability to hibernate due to domestication, not that they were never able to but I admit I'm not an expert in the field so I may be wrong.


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## super_sonic (May 20, 2009)

thats actually pretty interesting to hear, i dont know much about hedgehogs except what i have read to care for them and keep them healthy, i just thought they were desert animals because most of the pictures i have found looking around on the internet shown them walking around in what appeared to be a desert or type of wasteland they were walking around in :? some of them were also in a woodland enviroment but i just thought that they were someones pet but guess i was wrong  think i might start searching some now for some research on their lifestyles in the wild


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## yaoigirl (Dec 10, 2008)

Sorry I haven't replied lately it's been a busy week but I wanted to say thank you Zalea for your suggestion the temperature of the cage doesn't fluctuate nearly as much.


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## Reaper (Aug 22, 2008)

Actually at one time they could hibernate. You must remember these animals are the oldest living live birth land animal and have remained mostly unchanged for 50 million years. Now one of the parts that have changed is they have lost the yellow fat deposits which are the stores used while hibernating. Living in warm areas they haven't needed to hibernate in quite a long time. But they still have the instinct to hibernate if they get colder than they have been used to for a few million years. The European hedgehog does hibernate if I am not mistaken. Our mixed breed African hedgehogs haven't lived in cold enough regions until humans shipped them to North America approximately 20 years ago. So when you look at the evolution time line a couple of decades isn't very long when compared to how long they did fine on their own in the wild. It is only due to us humans displacing them that hibernation is an issue. If we lived in climates they are used to they would almost never attempt hibernation.


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