# Lights on a timer OK?



## Chels (Apr 28, 2012)

We are going to be keeping little Sophie here in our basement where our bedroom is, there is no natural sunlight and all we use is a lamp (don't worry, its not a cold, wet, disgusting basement lol). If we got another lamp to put over her cage on a timer, would that be okay? Or could she tell the difference?


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

That's fine.  It's not recommended to use natural light for your light source because hedgies sense the shorter days in Winter & can attempt to hibernate.

Just make sure you have the light on for 12-14 hours a day, like 8am to 10pm.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

Sophie! What a delightful name!

My girl has two 60 watt bulbs that plug into a timer with two outlets. They are on from 6am to 7pm.

(Even though they are 40" above the top of the cage, and 55" above the floor of the cage, when the weather is warm, they add about 5 degrees to the cage temperature. I have to account for that with my cooling. On really hot days, I turn on the room's overhead light for most of the day and just turn off the cage lights during that time.)

http://www.serenebreezes.com/Sophie-images/buttoned-up.jpg


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## SquiggyTheHedgie (Jul 26, 2011)

Squiggy has a simple clamp on lamp connected to a timer for 6am-9pm. I only use one and its clamped at the back but bends forward towards the center. It distributes the light nice and even, and his heat lamp is in a corner angled inward.


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## abzx10r (Apr 18, 2012)

SquiggyTheHedgie said:


> Squiggy has a simple clamp on lamp connected to a timer for 6am-9pm. I only use one and its clamped at the back but bends forward towards the center. It distributes the light nice and even, and his heat lamp is in a corner angled inward.


+2 I have two clamp lights, one is a day light & heat and the other is a just heat. My day light lamp is on from 8:30am to 8:30pm, turns off. The heat stays on from 8:30am to 11pm. I like to simulate nature as much as possible hence no heat or light from 11pm until 8:30am(average temp at night is 73F) I have a lot of animals so my house tends to be warmer than most. Birds like it  Average temp is from 72 low at night to 79-80 during the day :mrgreen: Both lamps have different timers


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## Tara151 (Jan 9, 2012)

abzx10r said:


> I like to simulate nature as much as possible hence no heat or light from 11pm until 8:30am


You shouldn't turn off the heat at night. If it gets too cold they will go into hibernation. If they hibernate they could die. You are suppose to keep the temperature as consistent as possible. Hedgies aren't wild animals, they are domesticated.


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## HedgieGirl519 (Oct 21, 2011)

abzx10r said:


> I like to simulate nature as much as possible hence no heat or light from 11pm until 8:30am. Average temp is from 72 low at night to 79-80 during the day


You don't turn the heat off at night. You also do not want the temperature to fluctuate from 72-80. You might think it's cool or good, but it's actually deadly to your hedgehog. The cage should be around 75 at all times. You don't want it to fluctuate more than a degree. When the temperature drops from 80 to 72, that is a big risk for attempting hibernation. Also, hedgehogs are active at night. If it is not warm enough at night, they won't be as active. Please use a proper heat setup before your hedgehog pays the price, and other hedgehogs whose owners may read your advice.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

> . . . You also do not want the temperature to fluctuate from 72-80. You might think it's cool or good, but it's actually deadly to your hedgehog. The cage should be around 75 at all times. You don't want it to fluctuate more than a degree. When the temperature drops from 80 to 72, that is a big risk for attempting hibernation. . . .


Can someone point to documentary sources for this? I can find anecdotal evidence and unsourced statements, but am interested in finding something more substantial.
.......................................................

Sophie shows no signs of issues into the upper 80s, but since I have put an AC in her room her max temperature has been set for 81 degrees. When summer sets in hard, there will be very little movement in the temperature; it will be 81 most of the time unless I reset it. In the meantime, I do keep the CHEs handy for cool nights. I've got them set to for a floor of 73 degrees. Mountain nights; in the spring and fall we get big fluctuations. So, Sophie has been seeing 73 - 81 recently.

Although it isn't unusual for animals to thrive within a specific temperature range, it can be detrimental for some to be kept within an extremely narrow band at all times of the day and year. They lose the ability to adapt to changes.

I have found many references recommending 72 - 80(up to 85), almost none of which specify picking a specific point within that range and avoiding deviation. I'm curious to read other sources on this.

My breeder recommended 72 - 85, without mention of further proscription.


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## Guest (Jun 4, 2012)

im going to agree with good an plenty. 

it would be impossible to keep the cage from fluctuating more then a degree yes rapid drops from a high to low temperature can cause hibernation attempts but a cage fluctuating through out the days form 73-77 or 78 and then back down again i dont see as a huge problem. also some hedgehogs like warmer temperatures and some like cooler so saying it has to be at 75 is not exactly right either. a rescue i had before use to like it at 72 and if it got hotter all she did was sleep and splat.


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## Olympia (Aug 4, 2010)

It's true not every hedgie reacts the same to temperature but I can tell you by experience that it's risky to let the temperature fluctuate by more than a couple of degrees. Clémentine had an hibernation attempt this week-end. After getting a couple of weeks of very hot weather where her cage was between 77 and 80 F without the CHE working, we got a week of colder weather where her cage dropped to 76 F with her CHE working, which is the temperature she was at all winter and was perfectly fine with. That was enough to trigger an attempt. It wasn't a big fluctuation and I tought the drop was gradual enough to not cause a problem but it wasn't. I caught her on time and she's fine but it was scary.


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## HedgieGirl519 (Oct 21, 2011)

There has not been a lot of research done on hedgehogs. So are you going to find some hard written proof, no probably not. Everything that we do for our hedgehogs is from years of trial and error.

I did not say at 75, I said *around* 75. Yes, dropping from 80 to 73 is a big drop. The poster said they turned the CHE off at 11. When the CHE is turned off, the temperature drops. A big drop CAN cause hibernation, as noted by the person above me and numerous other people. Hedgehogs can also overheat.

72-85 is way to big of a gap. Hedgehogs can and do over heat, mid 80's is a good chance for that.

There are also TONS of references saying hedgehogs don't need a heat setup, doesn't mean it's true. There are dozens of websites that claim information that is definitely not true. The number 73-78 is from breeders and owners who have had *years[/b ]of experience. Like said, what we know about hedgehogs is from years of trial and error.

A temperature dropping signals it is going to get cold. If it's going to get cold, the hedgehog will attempt hibernation. You don't use natural light for this same reason. The days get shorter, it signals winters coming, so they attempt hibernation.

It is very possible to keep the cage from fluctuating more than a degree. I have 6 cages right now, all with 17 square feet of space. The temperatures never drop below 74.4 or go above 76.2. If I can keep my huge cages warm (my apartment is at 70) 24/7, other people can as well. I use CHE's btw.*


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## Chels (Apr 28, 2012)

I have a CHE connected to a thermostat set at 75 degrees. It is not on at the moment because Sophie isn't here yet, but when it is off on days we do not turn the central air on the temp stays around 75 degrees, and when we turn the air conditioner on, the temp goes down to a steady 72 degrees. So on days we don't turn on the air, should I just keep the CHE off since it's at 75 and turn it on when the air is on? We also turn the air off at night time, so the cage temp gets around 75.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

HedgieGirl519 said:


> It is very possible to keep the cage from fluctuating more than a degree. I have 6 cages right now, all with 17 square feet of space. The temperatures never drop below 74.4 or go above 76.2. If I can keep my huge cages warm (my apartment is at 70) 24/7, other people can as well. I use CHE's btw.


This is something that I struggled with for months. The room my hedgie is in is at the back of the house and is completely shaded almost all day. The door is always closed up. It's a 10 year old house so the insulation is wonderful & our central air is very efficient. The central air heated my room up to a maximum of 68 degrees this past winter. Milly has a 2x3 C&C cage with two 150 watt CHEs in 10" domes on each side. I used a space heater to heat the room itself to 72 degrees, then the CHEs would heat the cage to about 75/76. I have a thermometer that calculates the highest and lowest temperatures recorded at the site of the thermometer itself and that the end of the sensor (which is in the cage). I check and reset the recorded temps every morning. On average, the lowest temp is 74.5 and the highest is 79.5 (in a 24 hour period). There is nothing I can do to regulate the cage temp better, other than standing over the cage 24/7 turning the CHEs on and off manually as the temperature goes higher and lower. So, it might be possible to keep the cage temperature within 1 degree all day long every day of the year for you, but it isn't practical for a lot of us.  Everyone lives under different circumstances and what works and is possible for one owner is not something in the realm of possibility for another. I tried to do the whole 1-2 degree only fluctuation thing for months and months, but it was futile and eventually I realized, "Hey. If Milly has been fine with the 4-5 degree fluctuation for all these months that I've been trying to prevent it, what am I even doing?" :lol:

Obviously every hedgie is different in what their temperature preferences are. My hog has never attempted hibernation. One night, her CHE lamp broke and I was not able to heat the entire room her cage was in. I heated a rice bag up in the microwave and put that and hot water bottles in her cage, but the cage temp was still around 68 degrees all night that night. I stayed up late to cuddle with her to give her my body heat and make sure she didn't try to hibernate, but she was in her cage in 68 degrees for 5-6 hours that night and she didn't attempt hibernation. This is the same hog that showed no signs of stress or annoyance on the couple days last summer when her cage temp was 84 degrees. :lol:

With all that said, I do believe that you should do everything in your power to create a stable environment for your hedgie, no matter your living situation or if you are a more passive owner and don't believe bad things can happen in a particular situation unless you have personally experienced it. Whatever we CAN do, we SHOULD do. Our little ones deserve the best care possible and a sudden drop in cage temp can and has triggered hibernation attempts. Just because one person's hedgie handles large fluctuations well does not mean another one does.

It's very important when using online forums to remember that the 'rules' we follow are usually not based on any sort of fact or research and that it's impossible for any of us to know a hedgehog better than the owner that is posting about it. Try to be kind in your responses & keep in mind that what works for you doesn't work for everyone else, and that the people posting are only doing so because they care about hedgehogs and want to help others. There are few hard and fast rules in the hedgie community and while a lot of us follow the assumed rules to a T and never deviate for fear of doing something 'wrong', there are other people that do their own thing and base their own personal hedgie rules on their experiences and still have happy, healthy hogs. We are not here to judge or make others feel guilty for not doing things the way we think they should do them and frankly, doing so will just offend people and scare them off. Tread lightly on these online forums and keep respect & kindness in the forefront of your mind and your posts. It's easy to be rude, judgmental or defensive when you're basically talking to a computer, but there are people on the receiving ends of your posts that are here for the same reason as you - their love of hedgehogs.

These are all general statements and not meant for any one person in particular. I'm just so tired of the bickering and nit picking I've been seeing lately and a post like this once in a while might help. *Shrug*



Chels said:


> I have a CHE connected to a thermostat set at 75 degrees. It is not on at the moment because Sophie isn't here yet, but when it is off on days we do not turn the central air on the temp stays around 75 degrees, and when we turn the air conditioner on, the temp goes down to a steady 72 degrees. So on days we don't turn on the air, should I just keep the CHE off since it's at 75 and turn it on when the air is on? We also turn the air off at night time, so the cage temp gets around 75.


The point of thermostats is so that you always have a heat source. Just keep the thermostat & the CHE on 24/7. If the A/C is off and the house is warmer, the CHE won't turn on. Once the A/C is on and the house starts to cool off, the CHE will turn on. It simplifies things a lot for us as owners and creates a more stable environment for our hedgies.


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## GoodandPlenty (Feb 4, 2012)

hanhan27 - Good post. For my part, I definitely believe that we all do our best and a point comes where 'all you can do is all you can do'. Sifting hedgie information and experiences is an ongoing process. I like to ask questions, look at the answers, and then ask more questions, making adjustments all along the way. I haven't found a whole lot of final or absolute answers. There is a balance that must be struck for nearly everything.
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> Whatever we CAN do, we SHOULD do.


Absolutely. But, boy, it sure can be hard to decide what I SHOULD do. Ha!


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## abzx10r (Apr 18, 2012)

Tara151 said:


> abzx10r said:
> 
> 
> > I like to simulate nature as much as possible hence no heat or light from 11pm until 8:30am
> ...


LEARN TO READ before posting...I own more animals than you could think & with that being said..."my house doesn't go below 73F so hibernation isn't happening."

FACE PALM TO HEADSHAKE :roll:


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## Tara151 (Jan 9, 2012)

abzx10r said:


> Tara151 said:
> 
> 
> > abzx10r said:
> ...


I can read very well, thank you very much! But just to humor you I reread your post and nowhere in it did you mention that you house doesn't drop below 73F (You said it averages at 73F and minimum isn't the same as average). If someone who was just learning about hedgies were to read your post they might think they should shut off their heat at night and their house may go below 73F and it could be very dangerous.


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## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Can this thread be locked? The OPs questions were answered and this isn't going anywhere good. *Sigh*


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