# Potty Training Success! Story time!



## jlindsey428 (Sep 23, 2013)

It's been about 2 months now since I got Rory. He's more than doubled in size, and no longer has that baby face look to him. He's seriously my pride and joy.
Besides all the cute things he does (which I could talk about forever), I just thought I'd focus on one awesome thing about my Rory...

Rory's officially litter trained.

Now you may ask, Jenna, you know, you don't really know if he's litter trained. maybe he just likes the corner where you put the litter box. BUT NO! Here's the story:

*THE TRAINING*: First, I'm just gonna say that when I got him, I knew I wanted to litter train him just because of the small size of my room, and the potential for fleece to smell bad when constantly exposed to urine. Babies are easier to train because they're still learning. So when I got him, I took a poop (I picked it up with a very long spoon...) that I found in the carrier he came home in, and put it in the box of litter to maybe show him that this is where he should potty. He was just about 8 weeks old when I got him, and he literally picked up on what he was supposed to do in a day. That very night I found that he had pottied in the box! By three days, he had mastered it. (I eventually got rid of the box because the CSBW didn't fit with the box in his cage. It was a corner box and it was too wide. So I just put the litter under his wheel.)

*THE SUCCESS STORY*: So the other night I discovered that his feet were bleeding on the bottom because he was running so much. I have a Carolina Storm Bucket Wheel, so the only logical explanation for the blood was that he either tripped a few times or ran his feet raw. I decided that he needed to have his wheel out for the night so his little paws would have a chance to heal. The next day I noticed that there wasn't any potty evidence from that night, which was really weird, since he usually dirties up the wheel. I weighed him. He put on 25g that night!!! (I weigh him daily). And he was such a grouch that day. That evening when I got home from class, I decided to get his old litter box out. (I had removed it because it didn't fit with the CSB wheel in the cage too, but I still use the same pellet litter under his wheel.) I'll tell you the story later in another post about how I began litter training him when I first got him, but basically, he is familiar with the box. Literally, within 5 minutes of my putting the box in his cage, every inch of litter was soiled. He had immediately walked to it HAVING WAITED ALL NIGHT, and relieved himself. The poor baby! He lost all 25 grams too.

Moral of the story: Hedgehogs are smarter than I thought. 
Second Moral: if I can potty train a hedgehog in 1 day, why do my dogs still have accidents?!

If anybody else has a good story about potty training, I'd love to hear it!  Though I'm no expert, and definitely a newbie hedgie owner, if you have any questions about how I potty trained Rory, let me know!


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## sklock65 (Jan 9, 2013)

Haha too cute!

My Henry never really totally got the hang of it but once he grew out of his baby stage he didn't continue having so many "accidents" while out of the cage. I just have to quick place him in his makeshift litter box if he looks like he's about to go and he will totally stay right there and go. In his cage he decided himself to always go in or right behind his wheel...so I just always have a paper towel under and behind the wheel and it makes for super easy daily cleaning. Good enough for me.

Funny about your hog waiting til the appropriate litter box was back. I just imagine the hog like "Human! Litter box! NOW!" Haha

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## Haley (Nov 18, 2013)

Your story inspired me!

I put down a little 'box' which was actually just a pile of paper towel squares, and this morning all the poop and pee she did over night was on the paper towel, or a near miss (but I'm giving her credit for trying).

Yay!

She did go a little on my daughter before school, but that is too be expected, I think. She picks her up straight from fast asleep without a chance to go in the cage. Plus my daughter has been the chosen one in terms of going potty since we met this girl. 

At the breeder we each held her (and one other) and my daughter was the only one to get peed on, lol. All three evenings so far my daughter has been 'blessed' about four times more than anyone else. There must be something about her scent. Princess (our Hedgie, we have to be specific because Princess might also be our daughter Sophia, lol) will only play with hair ties my daughter has worn. Princess P loves Princess S's hair ties. We make them out of elastic trim so they are extra stretchy.

If she, Princess P, learns to hold it until we put her in her cage I will be astounded. I'm making some cuddle sacks with a water proof outer layer (like a cloth diaper) and water proof lap pads for lap time, just in case.


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## fishhead (Nov 18, 2013)

Haley said:


> All three evenings so far my daughter has been 'blessed' about four times more than anyone else. There must be something about her scent.


Princess S. also holds Princess Pooperpants about 2x more than anyone and tends to hold her first which could be related too.


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## jlindsey428 (Sep 23, 2013)

I think I also got lucky! Rory won't "bless" me at all. He's tried twice, but I immediately put him in the litter box, and he got the gist. I also got Rory kind of young and started him very early. But i'm glad you were inspired! It may be a hard journey,b ut it's worth it!


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