# swimming



## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

Hi everyone. 

So I want to start implementing a swimming routine in Bean's schedule. She is kind of lazy with the wheel. She runs on it every night but I don't think it's enough. She LOVES to eat kibble... She eats so much of it its crazy. But I heard restricting food isn't a good idea. So would rather get her to exercise more rather than give her less food. 

I've let her swim in the sink. It's a really tiny sink so she is just swimming in place. I would like to let her swim in the bathtub so she can actually move around a lot more...and maybe it will be more enjoyable for her. 

How many times a week can I let her swim? How long should I let her swim for? Anything else I should know?

I heard of people putting an island in the tub so she can rest if she needs to. So I'll definitely do that. 

Thanks everyone!


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

I have this same question as well, and I'm also wondering if having them swim will make dry skin problems worse.


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## Prickerz (Sep 17, 2014)

Yes, dry skin is an issue. but I always put olive oil in the water and it seems to help!
I would say once a week? let her skin tell you!!


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

I would only let her swim if there is nothing else you can do. Most hedgehogs HATE water. There is the very, very rare one that doesn't mind it or even enjoys it; but the majority just tries to escape the tub. 
If you let her swim make sure there is always something for her to climb onto so she can rest.

What's the fat content of the food you're using? How much do you give?
Try adding low-fat treats to her diet like vegetables.


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

Thank you Prickerz! Olive oil is a good idea. Is there a time limit for swimming?


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I let my girl swim once a week. There are two reasons I do this, one, she is lazy, two, her nails could really use the soak. They are healing up finally but when I first get her they were yellowed and curled. 

Every other week is her 'bath' week, so that week I fill the tub with water, place a little island in the middle and let her swim around. After she is done, I refill the water (poop always) and wash her off. I apply vitamin e oil to her skin after her bath days. On other days, I don't worry about it. About once a month I let her swim in oatmeal water. 

The first couple of weeks she was really stressed and I didn't let her swim for more than 2 minutes. She is better now and knows when to move to her island for rest. She normally swims for under ten minutes before she gives me that, mom, I'm tired look. 

I know of some who let their hedgehogs swim more than that but Rose has begun losing weight just by this weekly swim so it seems to work for me. I'm not sure how big Bean is, but if she starts losing too much weight you can always a nice fatty food to her mix escpecially if she enjoys swimming. 

If I'm remembering correctly, Cha-Cha, is a chunky girl and should be fine. 

A couple of nice things to do. I run hot water in the tub to warm up the bottom before putting in luke warm water. This way, the water doesn't chill as fast while they swim. I keep an eye on that as well. I never let her swim when the temp change is noticeable. I'll add some warm water. I also bring in my space heater to make the bathroom all warm and toasty. 

Best 'islands' are going to be the mesh plastic baskets. I have to put the soap bottle to keep it from moving but it works really well for me. You can also add a wash cloth or towel on the surface since plastic is slippery. 

Good luck to the both of you. Lemme know if you try it and what your hedgehogs think.


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

Thank you so much for all of that information!! I'll definitely start slow with Bean. I can't wait to try it  im going to do it on Monday night so I'll update and post some pictures!


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## Prickerz (Sep 17, 2014)

I have wised up to Pepper's bath time poopies, and never let her leave the bathroom unless she has gone because I know that if she doesn't go then, it'll end up in the towel while she's drying off and we are cuddling! Last night she pooed on my shirt. I laughed and she just sorta looked at me like "i'm hungry now that i'm empty!"


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

Hahaha typical hedgie!!


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## [email protected] (Nov 17, 2014)

sc, my Ty hates water, but when I give him a bath, I'm always sure to have a heated towel ready for him to dry off in. I usually put it in the dryer for about ten minutes while he's bathing. He loves snuggling up in it right after he gets out of the water


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

I really don't want to make my girl swim but she literally doesn't care to do anything, even explore new rooms or investigate new toys! She is getting so fat and I am worried because she's so so lazy. She doesn't eat much, less than a tablespoon a night but she does absolutely nothing! If I end up trying it, how deep do I make the water? Is it going to be possible for her to just stand there in the tub and do nothing like she does during baths?


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I fill the tub to the point where she can barely touch the bottom but has a little bit of grip. As long as there is an island for her to rest on, you should be fine with going to a little deeper if you need to force her to swim. 

My chunky girl is just like yours, she just doesn't do anything and doesn't really eat either. I put her in her playpen the other day so she would poop and pee before bonding with her and she just sat there. I had to bribe her to move around with darkling beetles. :roll:


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## TikkiLink (Dec 4, 2013)

Haha! My hedgie won't go when I get her out until I pick her up and she gets all squirmy, so I just hold her in paper towels at first because as soon as she's in my arms, up goes the tail!

I spray her regularly with Humilac and I had been warned before to either use Humilac OR oil, so I'm assuming I can't put oil in the water so hopefully Humilac would still be able to help afterward. I'm still debating about making her swim though, only because my bathroom is REALLY drafty (and cut off from the house heat completely!) Hopefully a space heater would do enough since it'd only be for short times.


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## ashleyyy (Sep 22, 2014)

How did this go?


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

I completely forgot to update you guys!!! 

I did it yesterday night  it went really well!!! She actually seemed to really enjoy it!! So my bathtub is kinda slanted so the part closest to the drain is deeper than the other end of the tub. So I filled the tub so that the drain end was deep and the other end was shallow so Bean could touch and rest. 

It was so funny!!! I placed her in the shallow end to start and she immediately started swimming like crazy over to the deep end. And then back to the shallow for a rest, and then back to the deep. And so on! It looked like she was doing laps or something. I added some oil for her skin as well. 

It was really fun to watch her be so active!! She can definitely be a professional swimmer! 

And I forgot to take pictures  I was just so excited that I completely forgot my phone even existed. But next time I will


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## ashleyyy (Sep 22, 2014)

That's awesome, yay!


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## mdcoolcat (Nov 7, 2014)

Hey sc2001, what oil do you apply to her skin? And how long / how often does she swim?


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

I used to apply olive oil directly on her skin whenever I saw that she had really bad dry patches. I would also drop a few drops of olive oil into her bath/swim water. Be careful not to add too much because then it can turn into an oily mess! 

However, now I use a conditioning spray called humilac. Its been working wonders. You can't use humilac and oil at the same time so I do not use oil anymore. I just find that a light spray of humilac on her skin works when she looks dry. 

I have Bean swim once a week on Sunday. I started off with her swimming for 15-20 seconds just to make sure she was ok with it. Now we have moved up to around 5 minutes (with breaks if she needs them). I'm not sure if I should increase it because I don't want her to get too stressed out or tired. I increased the amount of swim time very slowly 

Hope this helped


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## mdcoolcat (Nov 7, 2014)

Thanks. Has Bean lost weight? Wondering swimming for minutes once a week really help losing weight?


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## sc2001 (Oct 12, 2014)

She has lost a little bit of weight  Swimming is super tiring for hedgehogs. especially bigger hedgies. Bean is visibly tired at the end of her swimming session. She usually goes straight to sleep right after. The reason I don't do it more often is because i don't want to cause any skin issues like dryness. But combine swimming with many other things. So I guess its all of the activity together that helps. I have her out every night for 2 hours. She is running around with her tube for most of that time. AND i got her a new CSW wheel not too long ago. She has been running a whole ton more lately. 

So yeah I do think it helps along with everything else


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## mdcoolcat (Nov 7, 2014)

My hedgie does hate water. Last weekend I tried her swimming in sink, she hissed and swim to escape a lot at the beginning, then sit or rest there for some minutes before the next "escape" round. Do you think I should continue try swim? I feel sorry for her when she hiss and escape there


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I would definitely not try it again. Swimming isn't for all hedgehogs. There are other ways to encourage exercise.


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