# How to get my hedgehog like light



## kaya90 (Aug 20, 2014)

Hello everyone! My Hedgehog's name is Chu and she's a 6 month old baby.
She likes to sleep especially inside my bed or my t-shirt.
I would love to take more pictures of my adorable baby, but she hates coming out from the dark. Every time I take her out when there's light, she freaks out and starts to find dark places. She doesn't even eat when it's light.
Is there anyway that I can teach her light isn't something she should be afraid of?

My additional questions are:
So I've been out of town for two weeks and my bro-in-law took care of Chu while I was gone. When I came back and held her, she started licking and biting and anointing. Any ideas on why she would have done that? I didn't put any scented lotion or anything.

Since I took her back to my house, it's been three days now that she hasn't used her wheel. She walks fine, eats fine, and poops fine. She seems to sleep more than usual and tries to cuddle more. 

I'd like to think that she missed me so much that she wanted to put more scent on her body, hence the anointing, and trying to sleep with me more. But it's probably not the case haha.

Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated!!


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## MintyBanana (Apr 29, 2014)

Hi! Since hedgehogs are nocturnal, it's normal that your baby wouldn't want to eat or spend a lot of time in bright light. Keep in mind that when you bring your hedgie out during the day time, you're waking them up in the middle of their night! If your hedgie seems afraid of being in light, you could try bringing her out in dim light for a few days and gradually increasing the brightness of your room over the course of a few days/weeks. Chu should have a cage light in order to ensure that she has a consistent 12-hour light schedule (ex. have the light on from 9am - 9pm). 
As for the anointing, I would agree that it sounds like she missed you! To try to get her wheeling again, I would suggest placing her on her wheel (at night and in the dark) and put her back on it if she tries to climb off. I don't mean you should imprison her on her wheel, but it's possible that she forgot how to use it. It's also possible that she isn't wheeling at night because her cage is too cold.

A few questions:
Do you have a light setup for her?
What type of wheel do you have?
What is the temperature of her cage/what heat setup do you have?


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## rodanthi (Feb 7, 2014)

basically what Minty said. Hector hates bright lights too so we compromise and I turn on a fairly low light. Usually I give myself a few minutes to adjust as I (and maybe you as well) can actually see in much lower lights than I always think at first. It helps if I only wake him up in the evenings as well cos he gets freaked out if I wake him up in the day time. It being light in my room doesn't seem to upset him as much if he hasn't just been pulled out of a deep hedgehog sleep.

And you might just smell different from being away. Hector went for me once after I'd been in the flat with the slow cooker all day and I smelled like lamb tagine


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## Tongue_Flicker (Jun 11, 2013)

Hey chu welcome aboard! 

Well as for your question well you/they don't. You try using dim desklamps though


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