Hedge-proofing the house

[Allie]

I go to pick up my new little hedge-boy next weekend, and so of course, like any nervous new owner, I'm spending this week making the place ready for him. I've got his favorite kind of food, a good little supply of treats, and made a nice corner ready for his cage. But, I'm looking around the apartment and wondering what I can do to make the place safer for him. I'm not planning on letting him roam, but escapes do happen, and I want to make sure he'll be safe if he does manage to get out.

What are the major things to be concerned about? I've already double-checked the floorboards for holes or loose boards, and I've done my best to get any of the electrical cords in the room where he'll be up and out of the way. Anything else I need to worry about?

[Lattè]

The room I am putting my future hedgie in's door is VERY close to the ground and almost alwasy closed. i reccomend blocking of a section around the cage incase of escapes; if you have anything dangerouse in the room your hedgie will stay in... something as simple as a chair can be harmful if you dont take certian procautions that it cant squish your hedgie.

[HedgieMate]

Before our hedgie arrived, we wedged rolled up blankets into all narrow gaps between the floor and furniture in the room where he was going to free-roam, so that he wouldn't crawl in and we couldn't get him out easily. We were extra careful about our couch and chairs where he could hide under and get squashed to death if one of us sat on them not knowing he was under there.

Our little guy turned out to be a climber. He could scale the couch straight up to the seat and then to the top of the backrest. We were quite worried him falling from the top of the backrest, so we placed a thick floor mat around the couch. Even though he was supervised all the time during his free-roam period, he did fall from the top of the couch twice in the past 9 months (simply because we weren't fast enough to catch him) and we were glad that we had the mat.

You must be getting your new hedgie this weekend... how exciting! :hyper: Keep us posted as to how things develop.

[Allie]

Thanks for the advice! It turns out that I didn't get my hedgehog after all (loooong story...), but I'm still going to keep looking for one, and this will give me more time to get things all set up for them. Fingers crossed!

[LunaMidnight]

Awww, sorry to hear that. :( Hope you find one soon!