# Please help! Hedgie panicky..



## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

Hey everyone, my hedgehog's name is Shelby, he is 5 months old. He is a VERY friendly hedgie. Of course when you first wake him up he is a little grumpy with the spikes and all, but within a minute they're down and he's climbing all over me and is sweet as can be. I handle him quite often at a minimum once a day and he always has food and water and room temperature I keep it between 71-74 degree at all times. 

My problem is if he is out at night/daytime doing his thing (running on his wheel/eating/bathroom) and I walk into my room it literally freaks out and goes into a panic ! Like his eyes get wide open and then he scrambles into his igloo as fast as he can.. I thought it was maybe because he's still a baby, but it's all the time. I've been still hoping he'd grow out of it, not worrying much. However, this morning I woke up to use the bathroom at 5am when he was on his wheel and he saw me get up and freaked out like he always and it was dark in my room so I didn't think much of it. But when I woke up for school an hour later he was plopped/laying on his wheel and I went over and touched him/shook the wheel back and forth a little and he didn't move or puff up or anything and I didn't see him breathing!!! I thought he died  so I ran to get my dad and my dad picked him up and he got prickly (still not huffing and puffing like normal) and then finally started breathing somewhat normal...and before I left to school he seemed ok. For now I put a towel over his cage so I don't scare him as much, but is it possible I made him faint or made him almost go into hibernation?? I'm just very confused and scared. Please help!!!


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## ZeeMartin (Aug 5, 2013)

hey there, I'm fairly new to hedgies, so I'll wait for someone else to comment, but I can give your question a bump...


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## Tom (Jul 21, 2013)

I'll wait until someone more experience has an answer as well- but I do have two things to say. A lot of hedgies will hide or stop wheeling when you go in at night- but that doesn't explain the second part. And the second thing, having a temperature of 71 is most likely too low- try to aim between 74-78.


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## ajweekley (Aug 8, 2013)

That was my first thought as well -- that's pretty cool for a hedgehog. I'd try warming up his cage with a CHE or space heater and see if it helps. Don't wait on this -- do it today, because if he is trying to hibernate, you need to get him warmed up immediately to bring him out of it. The longer you wait, the more dangerous it is for him. Get a thermometer for his cage, because the ambient temp in the room is not always the same temp as his cage, depending on where you keep the cage. If he's on the floor, for example, it'll be cooler down there.

As far as panicking when you walk into the room, that might just be his thing. If he calms down immediately once he realizes it's you, I personally wouldn't worry about that part. 

Also, I would not recommend putting a towel over his cage. Hedgehogs, like most animals (including humans) respond strongly to the dark/light cycle, and if you have a towel over his cage, he won't be getting the light he should be getting during the day. If your room is not bright during the day, I would suggest leaving the light on, or at least a lamp over his cage, during normal daytime hours. As the days get shorter, don't shorten his lamp time -- shorter light cycles can sometimes trigger hibernation as well.


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## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

It's been like that for 5 months now, I'll be sure to make the room warmer, the average temp is usually 74 degrees (thats what the thermometer says).. I also keep the cage on my desk.

He panics when I walk into the room all of the time, it's usually fine, he just scrambles and runs into his house and doesn't come out until I feed him.. but he has NEVER slept on his wheel barely breathing like that, I've been having my dad watch him while I'm at school all day, my dad says he is better now. I just don't know what could have caused that behavior, I thought he may have fainted/passed-out as weird as that sounds? It's almost as if he was in a deep sleep.. 

For example, he is so used to sleeping in his corner where his house is, that when my dad and I took out the house when we were trying to wake him up, once he was up we put him back into his cage, he went into his corner without the house there to go to sleep.. he just wouldn't ever sleep on his wheel like that =/

And I didn't put the towel over the whole cage, just the front so if I walk into my room I wont scare him, so he has his privacy kinda. The window is along the side of the cage, so he is still getting more than enough light for sure. I am not a new hedgie owner, so that fact that I've never seen this before just scared me a lot =/

thank you all for your help though! i hope this doesn't happen again </3


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

As others have said, the freaking out is normal. 

Depending on where you live, outside light's not going to be good enough, especially right now. In more northern areas, days are starting to get shorter now, and this is when we start seeing a lot of hibernation attempts on the forum, both from light and temperature. I would make sure you're leaving a light on - this can be the room light or a small lamp near his cage, whichever is easier for you. A timer can help with making sure it goes on/off at the right times - you want to try and keep it around the same time every day, both for on/off.

Like AJ said, the room temperature doesn't equal the cage temperature - there can be different temps within the room, and sometimes there's drafts. It's also usually cooler on outside walls versus inside walls, and cooler near windows. So keep that in mind, and I'd suggest getting a digital thermometer with a probe specifically for his cage as well.

One last thing - depending on his age, hedgehogs can also get more temperature-sensitive as they get older, so it's possible that though 74* has been fine for him so far, it may not be high enough now. It can start as early as 1 year (Lily started getting temp-sensitive around 1.5 years), so that might be a possibility too.


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## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

Okay good! Because my past two hedgies never freaked-out like that, so I'm glad to hear that it's a normal thing. I also have a light with a timer actually like you just said!

And I do have a cage thermometer as well, the temperature in the cage is usually ~74 degrees. My dad and I have a heat pad from the old hedgie, but we never really used it because it gets too hot, I was going to go to Petco or Petsmart tomorrow to buy one with an adjustable temperature. Or maybe a heat lamp? Which would you recommend?

Just an update: I played with him after I got home and he seems to be doing much better now! No issues and always friendly as could be. The only conclusion I could think is that he was attempting hibernation and since it was only an hour after he was awake I was able to stop it in time? But overall, Shelby seems to be doing a lot better now! =)


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## ajweekley (Aug 8, 2013)

I would recommend a lamp. A heating pad only heats the area right above it, and you want to heat the air in the whole cage. I'm glad he's doing better now though!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Ah, good, sounds like you're ahead of the game then!  I also recommend a lamp - make sure you have a thermostat to use with it as well. If you do go with a lamp, also make sure it's a ceramic heat emitter bulb - not just a reptile heating bulb (which emit light). It should be a flat disc rather than a bulb-shape, and solid colored (white or black). As far as I know, I don't think Petsmart carries thermostats, but your Petco might have one in store. You can usually get them cheaper online though, if that's an option for you (though I can understand wanting to get it sooner rather than later).

I'm glad he's doing better, and hopefully he doesn't have any more issues!


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## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

Yes, I am *very* glad too! ..& Okay good! Because we have a few lamps as well & it is a flat disc ceramic (that's convenient!)! I had a 100 watt for my bunny we just tried, but the thermometer went up to 84 degrees, which is too hot, so now we are trying a 60 watt we happened to have and hopefully this will be better (the thermometer says 78 degrees)! Thank you again everyone, greatly appreciated!! =)


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Make sure you get a thermostat - you don't want to rely on just the lamp itself. It won't change temperature if the room changes temperature. A thermostat will keep the cage to one set temperature (give or take 1* either direction) so the temperature won't fluctuate too much (which can also cause hibernation). That's nice that you already had some of the equipment though, makes things much easier!


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## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

ohh when you said thermostat I just assumed you meant thermometer ! I wasn't thinking lol ! My question would be is how do I set up a thermostat to the current lamp I have? And I will try to go to Petco tomorrow!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

The thermostat will plug into the wall outlet, which turns it on. It will have outlets on it, where you plug the lamp into (instead of plugging the lamp into the wall outlet). For the Zilla thermostat (the one I had, is pretty popular on here) I found it didn't tend to follow the numbers written on it, so I just played around with it until I found where the dial needed to be to keep it to the temperature I wanted, and just avoided messing with it after that. Then the thermostat turns the lamp/CHE on and off as needed to keep the cage to the chosen temperature. It'll be nice too, since it'll save power - you can use the 100 watt CHE, and it won't need to be on 24/7 to keep the cage warm enough.


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## Ls1camaro1313 (Jun 12, 2013)

awesome! thank you very much!! also my hedgie was very active today! A lot more than usual! Maybe because the cage is warmer so he comes out more ! yay, so happy


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Glad he's doing better!  That's great.


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