Hedgie Poop Everywhere!

[iownazoo]

Every single night my hedgies make a mess of their cages! The wheel is smeared in poo and all the newspaper is brown. Also, there is a plate I put in their cages nightly for their wet foods and they cover it in poop. Is this normal, or is something wrong? Is there any way to prevent their disgusting habits? It is starting to gross me out. Let me know if anybody else's hedgehogs do this?
Sara

[Kerrie]

Hedgies are known to be poop machines. The wheels are usually pretty messy by morning and most have to be cleaned an a daily basis.
Poops should not be watery, green, slimy or soft, mushy, etc.
But why not start by telling us a lttle something about them first, then maybe we can help.
How many hedgies do you have?
How old are they?
What are you feeding them?
Have you recently changed food?
Any other info will help also.:)

[SherAlana]

Ummm, this is normal. I have to clean my 2 wheels 1-2 times a day. I change there liners at least 1-2 times a week. Most of the time they poo in there litter box when they are not using their wheel as a litterbox. I have to give them foot baths every other night, because sometimes they get so much poo on there feet from wheeling that they look like they are wearing brown booties. To me its sort of endearing, it makes me feel like a mom. I am constantly having to vaccum to avoid stepping on fallen quills. When I let they run for 2-4 hrs. each night, when they are done I clean the area by sweeping, then mopping, then I have to put the playpen enclosure away, clean their wheel once more . . . I do this every night. I find it is all apart of the joys of having a pet.

[Nancy]

Young hedgehogs are poop machines. There is no getting around it. They will poop everywhere and lots of it. They do improve with age but some hedgehogs are just messy. You might as well count on always having a poopy wheel but it will depend on the individual hedgehog, how poopy the wheel will be.

Sometimes if you have two dishes close to each other they will stand in one and eat out of the other. Of course this also means the one they stand in gets pooped in also. I have found my gang are less likely to poop in a dish if it is not close to another one.

[alaskabirch]

My hedgie is also very filthy, but it took about a month and she is mostly litter trained. I bought a little container for her litter box and she never went in it, so I got a 1 ft square tupperware container and she when it in once. I placed her in the box and she sniffed a little in it, but I never saw her go. I was proud of that first moment, but it was short lived.
The next day I got her a wheel and it was horrible. She didn't go in the box anymore, just in the wheel, so I moved the box under the wheel where it would stick out. I started picking up the poop and puting it in the box, then I would place her in it. After that, she still went all over. So I took some toiliet paper and wiped up the pee and stuck it under the litter in the litter box, I figured she might be like a dog and recognized the scent. I put her in the box after I did that.
It seemed to work better, but her hedgie bag still smells bad. So I gave her a cardboard shoe box and it's much cleaner now. She still plays in the litter box, so I need to make sure that I don't put too much litter in it.
I use Good Mews paper pellets for her litter box.
Jenny

visit www.freewebs.com/hedgiehut for more insight on hedgie life

[Jessicy]

I used to use yesterday's news for popples litter and he would never use it unless i put him in it. After reading that someone put papertowle in their litter box, i though i would try that. Well we have been using this for now almost 3 weeks, and he seams to be getting the hint, but he still has his moments.

[yourmine]

My girl came to me litter trained and she doesn't seem to care what I put in her litter box. My little boy, on the other hand, was young when I got him and was a little poop machine. We tried using the same litter in his tray when we first started to train him but he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. As soon as we put paper towels in he started using it and has never gone back! As a matter of fact, whenever I put new paper towels in there, he gets in and rolls on it and rubs his belly all over the litter pan. He seems to really love it!

[Super_Girl456]

When I got Nuka and Zoey, they were wee little things. So cute but so messy. Pooped everywhere. Couldn't put neither in a ball for them to run in. They'd mess it up within a few seconds. I had to change they're cages every single night, because they'd get it so messy. Turns out that they were sick and need med. They had real bad Diarrhea. I thought it was normal becuase I had just gotten 'em and put them on a different kind of food that they hadn't had before.... Hope you got them checked out. Good luck with your Hedgies!

Hedgie hugs and best wishes, Honey,Nuka,Zoey,and Allie!

[CoquiMom]

Sometimes if you have two dishes close to each other they will stand in one and eat out of the other. Of course this also means the one they stand in gets pooped in also. I have found my gang are less likely to poop in a dish if it is not close to another one.

This is great information! I was wondering why I sometimes had poop in food bowls.

[jeffbot]

Ahh the poopy wheel. I used to have just one, but to keep up with the poopings, i bought another.... Yay!