# Is wheeling a barometer of health?



## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

Seeing a post by TikkiLink about decreased running on the wheel reminded me that I intended to start a discussion on this very topic. I don't think anyone really knows, so what are the theories on the significance of running?

When I first installed a bicycle odometer to our big cake top wheel, LuLu was running 10 and 11 miles every night. I thought that was impressive, but wondered if this excessive running was a sign of good health or a sign of stress. Was she just an athletic hog, or was this nervous energy she needed to run off? She was eating a good-quality mix of kibble, supplemented with probably a dozen mealworms and waxworms, but it was difficult to keep weight on. Every gram she gained was a cause for celebration. 

In June, we totally switched her diet (it was intended to be a gradual switch, but Lu had her own ideas about that and just gave up the old in favor of the new) and immediately her wheeling dropped by half, then gradually decreased to the point where she barely runs at all.
Now it's usually less than half a mile, sometimes none at all, and she mainly uses the wheel as her toilet.

I don't know what to make of this. What does it mean? In all other areas she seems to be thriving....she is more calm, yet still remains active in her daily playpen time. We have a saucer wheel in her play pen which she runs on like a mad woman for short bursts, then runs her obstacle course of over, under, around and through, then back to the saucer wheel. If I put the big wheel in the playpen, she pretty much ignores it. She's gaining weight, finally hit 290 grams yesterday. Her poop is perfect, but there's not much of it. She spends 5 or 6 hours a night hanging out with us, mostly sleeping.

I have considered all the variables that could affect her use of the wheel: changes in lighting, temperature, noise, wheel angle. Nothing has changed except her diet.

My instinct tells me that reduced wheel running may not be a bad thing. In the wild, hedgehogs cover many miles a night foraging for food. If the kind of food their body needs is available right outside their front door, do you imagine they would go out and run just for the fun of it? Someone (Kelsey, I think) offered a theory that the amount of carbs in cat kibble could be giving hedgies this crazy energy that requires a wheel to burn off.

But yes, this reduction in wheel running has been concerning, off and on. I wish I had never installed the odometer, because then I would not really know. I think each of us needs to look at the overall health of our hedgie, factor in possible reasons for reduced activity, and play detective as if we have nothing else to do.


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

It's weird, because there's no change I can attribute to my girl's gradual reduction in wheeling, as it has been a steady decrease over the whole year of her life. She eats less than a tablespoon of food a night by her own choice, and only gets treats on nail clipping day, once a week because of her weight. She's a big girl. She can still roll up tight I think but she rarely wants to. But when I look back at my first pictures of her, she has always looked stocky and had that "overweight" shape. I remember the day I got her, how much bigger she was than the other hogs and how she was too big to comfortably fit in one hand. Her daddy is also really big, and very fluffy, so I wonder how much genetics might play into weight, body type and wheeling.

I wouldn't worry so much about her not running if I wasn't afraid of health complications supposedly associated with not running. But at the same time, my vet's answer was "she's a hedgehog, hedgehogs are typically chubby." There is no way in my mind that a hedgehog who has about 7 square feet of space to play in all night long should be sleeping or laying down almost all night and day. I have a camera on her so I know when she's being lazy. But it's entirely by choice! I've tried everything I can think of-- aside from changing her diet, which I now might want to do.

If wheeling and exercise are important, I feel like I'm watching her choose a lifestyle that's slowly killing her.


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

TikkiLink, if I remember correctly, Cha-Cha has a huge amount of space, the entire side of a part of house correct? Have you tried reducing the amount a space? Perhaps she feels no need to run because she knows she can just explore at her leisure in her massive cage? This is just a theory and I know the idea is the biggest you can go, do it. However, I do agree with you, as long as she is healthy and not obese than there isn't much you can do to change your hedgehogs mind. :lol:


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Reduction in wheeling could be a health symptom. It can also be a symptom of an environmental issue. Or possibly an odometer issue.

Are you certain the odometer is functioning properly? Is the sensor catching every turn?

I have had hedgehogs who were super fast runners when they were young, and as they aged and grew up they slowed down. At the speed they were running the odometer was not accurately reflecting the number of laps they were running. Modification of the setup (adding a 2nd magnet and changing the odometer settings) immediately yielded that the hedgehog was using the wheel at a rate I was happy with.

More recently, I had a hedgehog who I thought had stopped running as much. I found out the odometer was flaking out. It seemed to be working fine. But I watching it one evening, I noticed it shut itself off and reset itself. That one drove me nuts because the symptoms I saw was a slow reduction in running. I purchased a new computer and lo and behold that hedgehog runs just as much as I had previously recorded.


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## CoffeeKat (Jan 15, 2014)

Good point, Kalandra. I will investigate the odometer for accuracy. What do you mean by changing the odometer settings? I've always used the circumference setting for a 12 inch wheel, which for my odometer is 0958. I do have a glass ramekin that I fill with sugar packets to weigh what Lu weighs, then set it on the wheel, rock it back and forth and watch the "counter" to be sure it registers the passage of the magnet (that probably makes no sense whatsoever, but it's how I know the distance to the magnet is right). Maybe I should just get a new odometer, but I can tell by the condition of the wheel that not much activity has occurred.

Given your years of experience with hedgehogs, Kalandra, do you feel that a reduction in the amount of running is worrisome? If so, what else should we be checking?


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

I have my wheels setup to measure laps not distances. So if you add a magnet you have to modify the circumference settings so that you don't double the distance ran erroroneously. Those odometers measure the number of times the magnet passes by the sensor. If you add magnets, you have to adjust settings.

I always worry when they change their behaviors. To me a change in the odometer is a change in behavior. Finding the root of the cause can be difficult to nearly impossible sometimes.

Typically I start out by checking the wheel thoroughly and changing the angel at which it slants. I check their feet and legs and watch them walk. Watching for any sign of lameness. I monitor their eating habits to see if they are eating more (possibly filling themselves up and getting sleepy instead of running). I'll also swap their wheel out for a different one to see if it fixes the problem (oddly enough I've had that happen!).

Really you just have to look at everything they do and try to pin point the problem, but you also have to realize that you may never find it. Sometimes you discover it purely by accident.


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

Yeah, Cha-Cha's cage takes up a section of a small room, using three of the room walls as a barrier. It's about 7 x 8 feet. We did that because her old cage was about 21 x 42 inches, and she's a big girl so it began to look cramped. When we moved in June, I was able to let her explore the apartment during bonding for the first time, and she seemed to love it. That's why we went so big. And for the first few weeks in her new cage, she was very active and when she didn't run she played with toys all night-- also something she never did in her old cage. But she acts so much like she gets bored with things very quickly. Like she lost interest in exploring the apartment after two days, and she won't even check out new rooms she hasn't explored yet. She no longer cares about her toys, even when I move them or bring in new ones. It's like she has this boredom that I can't appease. Or that she is extremely, extremely lazy. And it's worse than ever because now she's figured out that she can liner-dive and she goes under there and won't even come out to use the litter box sometimes now.


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