# Ungreatful little darling...



## lmsoft (Sep 9, 2008)

I have a lovely little igloo set up for my baby, but she insists on attempting to hide under her wheel instead. And she'll pull up the lining to sleep under it, regardless of what she upturns in the process. Any ideas how I can convince her to sleep in her igloo? She's always content to stay there if I put her there, but almost never ventures in on her own. She did in the begining though, I don't know why she's changed her habit...


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## smhufflepuff (Aug 28, 2008)

Same with mine, except it was a hedgiebag rather than an igloo. After awhile, I just went with it and let her sleep under her liner. However, I have read of some hedgies enjoying their igloos if they're covered. A plastic igloo, apparently, isn't terribly attractive... but one with nice fleecy walls is.


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

My Kei used to drag her hedgie bag under her liner, over to underneath her igloo. So there would be 

- floor of the cage
- hedgie bag
- Kei on top of the hedgie bag, not in it
- liner
- igloo

I started putting the hedgie bag under the liner for her to save her some work. Of course she also had another igloo as a potty. :lol:


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Inky refuses to sleep anywhere but under the liner if he's got the chance. I've taken to tucking the fleece under tray in his cage, so he can't burrow under it. However, most cages don't have a tray like mine so I don't think that's possible. 

You could try blocking off the edges of the liner with smooth, clean river rocks, dishes, whatever you want to put in there...


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## Alicat42 (Dec 9, 2008)

Luna wouldnt sleep in the igloo the breeder and shop owner both tried to use. I have an old spaghetti noodle box with a hole in it. I have this heater thats a thin film that sticks to glass which is the bottom of the cage, and to prevent burning I put it on the outside, so the underneath of the cage. She has one end of her box house with the heater, and the other with out. And I give her news paper and pieces of fabric to shred and nest with.
But all the igloos I've seen are somewhat translucent. Do you think covering them or making them seem like a darker little nook to sleep in would make a difference?


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## Hedgiepets (Aug 21, 2008)

I have found with most of mine that if I put a blankie inside the igloo, they would stop sleeping under the liners. On male, it had to be a hedgie hat, anything else and he was back under the liner.


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## lmsoft (Sep 9, 2008)

Well, I have a nice snuggly blanket in the igloo, and it's exactly the same fabric as the one under her wheel which she seems to adore so much. 

I might try covering the igloo, though...


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## Annabeth (Nov 2, 2008)

Mina only burrows under her liner when there isn't anything in her igloo that she can hide under. When I clean her cage, I pick up each item and inspect it for poos/quills and if an item is too dirty, it gets put in the "wash" pile. If it happens to be a "full clean" day, she'll drag her little blankee around and hide under it while I pick up the dirty linens. I usually scoop her up, blankee and all, and place her in her tub while I clean her cage. She'll huff and puff when I put her back in her cage without her dirty blankee, but quickly quiets down when she gets a clean replacement. It's really cute to watch her throw a temper tantrum when I take any of her toys out to clean them. She never plays with them, that I see, but apparently she's attached to her little ferret jacks and little dump truck.


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## spikesmcgee (Dec 17, 2008)

I keep Annabelles hedgie bag (similar to a sleeping bag, i guess) inside her igloo. The problem that arises here, is that she won't walk directly into her igloo via the door. :roll: Rather, she attacks from the side and pushes the igloo up with her nose. Defeating the entire purpose of me putting the hedgie bag in.
However, if i throw one of my boyfriends shirts into her cage, she would rather sleep in it...all the way in it.


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## roxy (Oct 14, 2008)

in roxy's cage i got a hedgie bag, and old t-shirt i own and one of them bendable log hide aways with fleece cuttings inside to burrow through, but she always prefers my t-shirt <3.


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## hndspk (Aug 28, 2008)

My guy used to do that too... Then I used a rectangle piece of fleece and made a makeshift bag and stuck the igloo inside. Now that's all he'll use. He doesn't burrow under the liner anymore. I think it's because of the amount of light that the igloos let in.


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## payge (Aug 30, 2008)

mine use to hide under the liner...i know this sounds weird but now both hogs have a pair of my husbands old boxers (that have extra holes in them) that they both LOVE..and have to have all the time to sleep in..**i know this is weird but they are clean and get cleaned regularly.

**a side note somebody said they had a noodle box in their cage. Hedgie use to LOVE noodle boxes and use to bring his boxers in his box with him and that is always where you could find him...then one day he got a "paper cut" right on/in his "belly button"..which would not stop bleeding. i had to take him to the er vet at like midnight. It got very scabby and infected..and it was hard to put the medicine on it...
just wanted to put the warning out that you have to make sure to cut the flaps off and make sure there is no way for this to happen to your hedgie...


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## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

hndspk said:


> My guy used to do that too... Then I used a rectangle piece of fleece and made a makeshift bag and stuck the igloo inside. Now that's all he'll use. He doesn't burrow under the liner anymore. I think it's because of the amount of light that the igloos let in.


That's one reason I designed Igloo covers. http://www.freewebs.com/thehedgieden/accessoriesigloocovers.htm


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## Grouchyhog (Jan 21, 2009)

hahaha, my oscar burrows his head under his food dish instead of going into his big roomy igloo :lol:


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## Dominion (Oct 9, 2008)

Archimedes loves to burrow under his liner if he gets the chance. We started using double sided tape around the edges of the liner every time we changed the liner. This worked like a charm, eventually after a liner change he wouldn't even try to burrow and would go in his hedgie bag (Again THANKS! Nancy, they are wonderful and he loves his bag and hats) So we stopped using the tape and he wised up and started burrowing again. Now I'm sitting here with a cold hedgie cause the liner offers little to no warmth.


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## lucky18ea (Nov 24, 2008)

Prickles is like that too. If she has liners, she's underneath them...what's even better, is that the liners give her a reason NOT to use her litter box.

I tried tape and using velcro to attach the liners to the bottom of the cage, but her nose always pulled it up. I got her a cozy little "tent" type house that's fleece lined that she loves, but only if there's no liners. Even if there's a blanket in her tent, she'll hide under the liners under the tent.

I moved to putting a blanket only near her house to make sure underneath the house was staying warm since that's where she was if she wasn't out playing. Then I ended up getting a ceramic heat emitter to keep her a constant temp which keeps the floor of the cage plenty warm without liners.

I tried using newspaper to help line her cage and make less of a mess, but her skin was so dry if she was on the newspaper (not to mention the ink stains). That's when I moved to liners, which she loved, but considering I don't have a washer and dryer it was impractical. They also dried out her skin, reversed the litter training, and kept her out of her house. So now, she doesn't have any liners down, just a nice blanket in her fleecy tent, a ceramic heat emitter to keep her warm, and towels/blankets around the cage at night to keep out any drafts. She seems to do best this way--her skin isn't as dry on just the plastic bottom, she stays cleaner, and it's easy clean up.

She's an opinionated little booger!


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## jojoness (Jan 26, 2009)

haha, this is also an issue i had with my francis. he absolutely refused to use his igloo when i got it for him. but i realized that perhaps he doesn't like the lighting, so i put a hedgie bag inside it with fleece strips, and soon he discovered the wonders of it! it was nice to see that the wheel wasn't tipped slightly because he used to just sleep under it. now i cover the igloo with a tshirt and took the bag out so that he could make himself comfortable inside. now he's never under the wheel!


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## ambeester (Dec 5, 2008)

I put a blanket under the igloo with Goby. He loves it.


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