Dehydration?

[HedgieSpirit]

When I got Chloe she was only 5 weeks old and the breeder said I should probably keep feeding her wettened cat food. So now that she's a bit older I'm tryin to switch her to just dry food and at first I put some in with her wet food. Well she ate around it so last night I only put in the dry food. In the morning, I checked and she ate it! :applause: BUT I think she has been getting all of her water from her food because she never drinks out of her bowl and doesn't seem interested in water at all. So today I noticed she was a bit tippy and unstable :| I thought it might be because she was dehydrated so I offered her the water bowl and she sniffed it and then ignored it. My other thought was maybe she was having a bad reaction to the mite shot she got yesterday (it was her second one and they raised the dose) At the time I had to leave so I gave her wet food to eat to hopefully get her re-hydrated. When I came home, she had eaten her food and I got her out to watch her walk around a bit. She was fine! So I'm guessing she was dehydrated but that doesn't really solve my problem...she's still eating the wet food and she doesn't seem to know that water is for drinking :| I don't really know what to do....

[Silly_Quilly]

Keep an eye on her and keep introducing her to the water dish. Maybe put some water on a spoon or something and give it to her.

You may have to give her grapes, watermelon, and some other fruits and veggies that have lots of water in them to keep her hydrated until she figures it out.

[Nancy]

Unless you sit up and watch her all night you probably just don't see her drinking. Also just because you hold the water to her and she doesn't drink it, doesn't mean that she can't or won't. It simply means she doesn't want any at the moment.

It is often very difficult to tell from a water bowl if hedgie has or hasn't been drinking. It's not like hedgie will empty a bowl overnight.
If you looked at my bowls when I fill them each night and then looked again in the morning, most times there looks to be nothing drank out of them, but I know they do. :)

Hedgies usually have no problems drinking from bowls unless the bowl is too high for her to reach into. :)

[HedgieSpirit]

I know her bowl is not too high because it is the same type of bowl as her food dish and she can get to that fine...do you think I should stick with feeding her only dry food and see what happens?

[Kerrie]

It is difficult to tell if they are drinking from the bowls, but Chloe probably is. If you are really concerned that she may not be you could try a water bottle.(I am not a fan of water bottles but...) When my Ollie got sick and I wasn't sure if he was getting enough fluid, I would mark his water bottle at the water level. This way I was able to keep track of his intake. You could try this for awhile and see what happens.
Good luck and keep us updated.:)

[Herby]

I use a bottle with Herby because he always knocks it over and I worry that he does n't get enough water. The water lat's me know that Herby always has water and I moniter the amounts he is taking in.

[HedgieSpirit]

Thanks, I hope she is drinking her water, and I will probably try the water bottle, but do you think she was dehydrated and that is why she was wobbly and is better now?

[Kerrie]

She also could be getting cold. Do you have the room she is housed in warm enough?
Should be between 73(my lowest) and 80. (my highest)
Mine have actually been as high as 85 with no ill effects.
Better to warm then cold in my opinion.:)

[Herby]

It probably was a bit of both a little dehydration and the meds. Just make sure she has water available to her at all times and moniter her behavior and the amount of water that she is drinking.

[Love4Hedgies]

Like Kerrie said it sounds like she might be a tad warm. Do you have a heating pad in one side of her cage or snuggle disks?