# Hedgehog doesn’t like wheel?



## mccooler (Jan 24, 2019)

I’ve had my hedgehog Duncan for about two or so months and he still hasn’t used his wheel?when I got him I put a 12in wheel in his cage but he never seemed to want to use it. I tried putting him on it and blocking his way off for a while but he mostly just sits on it 😕 He gets scared when I try to spin it a little so that doesn’t seem to help much either? Duncan is a very sweet boy and doesn’t mind being held at all but he balls up whenever I try to get him to use the wheel. I even switched the wheel out for a 10in one because he’s a bit smaller than most hedgehogs. That still didn’t seem to work? I don’t want him to not get any exercise? I’m just not sure what to do 😕


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## belties (Oct 2, 2018)

Ours will not use her wheel when she is being watched. She only uses it at night and it must be very dark , even moon light will keep her from wheeling.


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## HedgehogHarvey (May 31, 2017)

What belties said. Are you sure he's not using it at night? Is the wheel solid where you could tell if he pooped in it? That's a dead giveaway he's using it overnight.

This is where having a camera in the cage really comes in handy since our little creatures are most active at night while we're sleeping


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## Ria (Aug 30, 2018)

Some hedgehogs are scared of the wheels at first. Holly was one of them. However you do have to keep trying.

When I did it I put Holly on the wheel then when she started to just sit there I just rocked it a bit calming her by talking to her. After a while of persistants and doing it daily she now loves her wheel.

A lot of hedgehogs wont be active until is pitch black and quiet. Although Holly is okay with a dim light across the room. And a small amount of noise. It depends on the hedgehog.

In the meantime if your worried about him putting on too much weight in a hedgehog safe room or a play pen (in the dark) you can make a couple of forage trays, hiding differnt insects in and have them a set distance apart with a few balls or something around.
You could also make a maze out of tunnels, with a few insects at the end to enrouage him to use it. 
Please do be persistant with that wheel.


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## Cherrymik (Jan 8, 2019)

I would suggest a tricky way. I also found it on this forum and it did work for me. I hope it can help you as well. 

I put my girl on wheel and I held a worm in front of her in my hand so she was chasing the worm while she was actually running on the wheel. I did it maybe 3 times and I was giving some worms to her as a reward, since she was running well on it and at the end she understood that the wheel is fun


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