# Hedgehog sleeping under wheel



## beckynaomi (Oct 3, 2017)

Hello, I am a new Hedgehog owner.
I got Pepper a couple of months ago now so I'm still working on getting him used to being handled without gloves.
I recently bought Pepper a new plastic house to make cleaning easier, and installed a heat mat underneath some fleece bedding for him.
Before I did this, and since, Pepper will only go into the house when I physically put him inside, and prefers to sleep under his wheel in his litter tray.
Would it help to swap the house and wheel/litter tray positions so that Pepper is happier going into his house because he seems to prefer that end of the vivarium, or do I just have a hedgie that prefers to be cool?
Thanks


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## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

First off, heat mats are not good for hedgehogs. They create warm and cold areas in the cage and moving from a warm to a cold area can trigger hibernation in hedgehogs. They need the cage to be a consistent temperature throughout the whole area. 

Many hedgehogs are a little excentric and find weird places to sleep.


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## beckynaomi (Oct 3, 2017)

nikki said:


> First off, heat mats are not good for hedgehogs. They create warm and cold areas in the cage and moving from a warm to a cold area can trigger hibernation in hedgehogs. They need the cage to be a consistent temperature throughout the whole area.
> 
> Many hedgehogs are a little excentric and find weird places to sleep.


I use the heat pad to keep his house warm because my parents may not turn the heating on when it starts to get too cold in my bedroom.
Should I not have a heat pad at all?


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

You should invest in a ceramic heat emitter. They warm up the air for the cage. You attach the ceramic heat emitter to a thermostat. The thermostat helps turn on the heat when it gets lower than the desired temperature you set it at.


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## beckynaomi (Oct 3, 2017)

SquirtleSquirt said:


> You should invest in a ceramic heat emitter. They warm up the air for the cage. You attach the ceramic heat emitter to a thermostat. The thermostat helps turn on the heat when it gets lower than the desired temperature you set it at.


Would I need to buy more than one of these?
I already have a thermostat that the heat pad is connected to. Currently the temperature in the middle of the vivarium is 22.8C and I have the pad set to 24C
Should I get rid of the heat pad all together?
Also because of having a vivarium and not a cage, I'm not sure where I can attach a heat emitter.


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

The lid must have holes, right? You can place it on top of the lid. You will need to get rid of the heating pad all together. It depends on how big your cage is. How big is the viv?


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## beckynaomi (Oct 3, 2017)

SquirtleSquirt said:


> The lid must have holes, right? You can place it on top of the lid. You will need to get rid of the heating pad all together. It depends on how big your cage is. How big is the viv?


There is space in the back for ventilation and wiring but there are no holes in the top that allow for light fixtures.
I believe the vivarium is 34inches wide.


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## SquirtleSquirt (May 9, 2016)

What's the length? You're most likely going to need two minimum, so that the heat can evenly spread out. You can use lamp clamps to help hold the lamps or any other things that will hold a CHE lamp. You can easily find a lot of options on amazon


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## Yukidama's mama (Apr 4, 2017)

beckynaomi said:


> Would I need to buy more than one of these?
> I already have a thermostat that the heat pad is connected to. Currently the temperature in the middle of the vivarium is 22.8C and I have the pad set to 24C
> Should I get rid of the heat pad all together?
> Also because of having a vivarium and not a cage, I'm not sure where I can attach a heat emitter.


Many hedgie owners use vivs with a CHE so there must be a way to attach it, hopefully someone who uses one will comment about this or just google it and I'm sure you'll find how to do it. Get a CHE fixture that comes with a black dome (8" or 10"), this will help evenly distribute the heat and the fixture comes with a clamp. ZooMed ones are one of the recommended types and you can find them on Amazon for a reasonable price (use the search function on the forum to also read other posts about CHEs if you want more information about them). Just buy one and see if it's enough, then if not order another one but since vivs hold in heat well you might find its ok and it will be far better than the heat pad, which shouldn't be used as Nikki has already explained.

Also 22.8C is too low of a temperature (I believe 22.5 is the bare minimum). A good temp range is 23.5C to 26.5C but a little higher temp is not as big of a concern as much as the lower temp, which is more dangerous for them. My boy's cage through the summer was 28C and he didn't mind it/act any differently. Hope this all helps


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