Ci Wei is turning into an acrobat... need advice

[hedgiesrluvd]

Hi all,

I got my first hedgie, Ci Wei, several weeks ago, and since he's mostly just up while I'm sleeping, all I ever hear is little noises in the night, which I assumed until recently was just his tp tube banging around (sometimes he knocked his water bottle off as well, but there's not much I can think to do about that). However, last night I couldn't sleep, so I got up and came out to where his cage is. Imagine my surprise when I looked inside and found myself staring straight into a hedgie's face, ON TOP of his exercise wheel! I almost had a heart attack... I decided that since he hadn't gotten hurt to my knowledge during previous nights (I had noticed some poo on the outside of the wheel, but figured it was just being picked up somehow from another area), I decided not to bug him, as that might scare him into falling and getting hurt. It turns out my little Ci Wei has been spending all night, every night trying to escape his cage. I watched him last night trying to find a solution, and he persistently climbed the sides of his cage and stuck his nose out through the top bars, apparently thinking he could squeeze through it (which he can't), and always falling in the end. I am afraid he will hurt himself, but the best I could do last night was move his wheel more towards the center of the cage (so he can't use the cage sides to climb and get on top of it) and stick a cookie sheet over the area where he kept climbing so he would hopefully figure out he can't get out that way (since his nose would hit something hard rather than empty space). Still, I am so afraid he will get hurt... last night he just kept climbing and falling, climbing and falling... my only idea thus far would be to rub vaseline on the bottom few bars of his cage so that he can't even get a start in climbing, but I don't know if Vaseline is safe for hedgies or not. Any ideas?

Also, when I go to pick him up, he does the "sneeze" and "jump" thing a lot it seems (I think I read where one of you said it is actually hissing and popping). Then when I do get him out, unless he has his hedgie hat to hide under, he just goes and goes and tries to get off or back in his cage, and man does he move fast... I've almost missed him a few times when he had almost gotten off my lap before I knew what was happening. He used to not mind being in the open and having me pet him or cuddle a bit, but recently he's become Mr. Anti-social... poor little guy... he's almost 3 months (born December 20), and he may just be going into his quilling stage, but I'm afraid he'll become anti-social for life. He will eat mealies and other food from my hands, and that sometimes seems to calm him a bit, but he still doesn't seem to like being picked up. He doesn't quill up too bad most of the time, and when he does he usually lays his quills down fairly quickly, but it just seems like he spends all of his time trying desperately to get away from me now. Any ideas? Will he go back to his quiet, calmer self after he's done quilling (if indeed he has started it, which I can't really tell... lotsa quills, but his only "bald" spot is between sets of visor quills on his forehead, and maybe that's supposed to be like that (a deep division of sorts))? If this is some sort of phase for him, is there something I can do to help him through it so he's not so nervous and scared all the time, and so he will be more sociable when it's finished? I know... I sound like such a newbie, right? Still, I love the little guy, I just wish he didn't seem so upset and nervous all the time now. Any suggestions on how to deal with the cage problem and also help him to trust me more would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Brooke

Worried Hedgie Mom...

[groovychic]

Cei Wei is always finding new ways to keep you on your toes isn't he? I can't believe he climbed on top of his wheel. I would have freaked out too! Maybe the little guy is bored. Do you have any toys in there for him to play with? I have a Kleenex box for a hidey house in my cages, sometimes a tp tube with the ends split, somtimes I will put in cut up pieces of fleece that they will drag around the cage, they both love their fleece blankies (Herbie will play with it and drag it around his cage and have fights with it), cat toy jingle balls, PVC tubes, etc. Change the toys around and make it interesting for him. I hope he gets over this phase soon....I wouldn't be able to sleep if I knew my hedgies were climbing all over!
As for the grumpiness thing....I am pretty sure he is quilling. Try to give him oatmeal baths that will soothe his skin, add vitamin E to his quills, you might want to even add flax seed oil to his food.

Good luck! :)

[hemi_mygirl]

You're right, that "bald" spot between sets of his visor quills is supposed to be there. It's called a "reverse mohawk" and is there so he can criss-cross his quills.

I've noticed Hemi does the exact same thing when she's bored. I have to take her wheel out sometimes (like last night, since I'm trying to get the swelling down on her leg) and she just panics. Things are uprooted, she climbs and falls...eventually I put the wheel back in.

How big is his cage? Maybe he's bored and needs more to do. Give him paper towel to shred (Hemi loves it). Give him tubes and kitten balls, things to burrow in and under. Maybe he'll amuse himself that way

Oh, and to discourage the climbing, try putting coroplast buffers up, so he can't climb on the cage. That might help.

[hedgiesrluvd]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies thus far. I did have some stuff for Ci Wei to play with, mainly, he has a few smaller fleece blankies, plus his liner, which he likes to burrow under. I had a stuffed toy in there, but he didn't show much interest in it after several weeks, so I took it out (it was kinda getting ucky anyway, so I either needed to wash it or toss it... I took the latter option ;) ). He also had a TP tube in there that he loved to play with, but I think he may have peed around it and I didn't have any more to give him yet, so I had to take it out for a few nights. However, I now have another TP tube to give him, and he also has his hedgie hat back after getting it washed. I have a hot wheels car for him also, but am afraid to put it in when I'm not there to supervise, just in case, but he's never up except when it's pitch black inside (he doesn't like the light at all), so thus I never get the chance to watch him play with it. I did perhaps find a small solution to help him bond with me... I had noticed that he would usually hold still and kind of cuddle a bit so long as I was standing or walking with him, and I kept having this image in my mind of walking around holding him up against me in my cupped hands, so I decided to try it. I turned the lights down low (left most of them off), picked him up, and walked around with him, humming to him (he LOVES music, and usually if I hum it will calm him down). He did fine for quite awhile, and almost seemed to enjoy the steady pace of my walking and humming, and so long as he could see over my hand, he seemed to really like the cuddling part. Right now he is relaxing under his hedgie hat on my lap. Perhaps if I got a cheap cd player and left some music on at night he would like that also. Tonight will be his first thunderstorm, though... it's just starting up, and he was born in December, so I doubt he's been through any before. Poor little dude... I may try to find a way to have some music going. I will also leave him some paper towels and see how big of a mess he decides to make tonight. :laugh: Anyway, I need to log off now, so thanks again for your advice, and I'll keep you posted (no pun intended, lol).

-Brooke

Grateful owner of 1 Hedgie: Ci Wei :)

[HedgieMate]

When we first got our hedgie, he behaved EXACTLY the same way as Ci Wei!! He too climbed up on the wheel, and stuck his head between the bars endlessly looking for an escape route, and kept falling to the bottom. So we temporarily put him into a 10 gallon aquarium, and wove pieces of clear acetate back and forth between the horizontal bars of his cage, then placed small pieces of Coroplast (a corrugated plastic material available in a variety of bright colours) to cover up the bottom part of the vertical bars [note: the cage is made for guinea pigs/dwarf rabbits with an approx. 5" high plastic bottom; two sides have vertical bars and two sides have horizontal bars.]

I understand that you can use sheet mylar or possibly cookie sheets instead of a clear acetate, but this prevented our hedgehog from climbing up the cage and was crystal clear so it allows for views into the cage. Thus, there's been no more falling. When we put our hedgie back into the cage, he continued to try climbing up, but there was no bar to hang onto within his reach and the surface of the Coroplast was too slippery. He still tried his hardest to climb for several days, but in the end he gave up altogether.

He also climbed up his playpen fence tirelessly, and he eventually learned to climb over the 9" fence every time we put him into his playpen. Without exaggeration, he spent all his waking time frantically trying to escape! Naturally, our feelings were bruised...

We raised the height of the playpen fence to 18" by stacking another 9" fence on the top. He couldn't get out, but it didn't stop him from trying to climb the 18" fence. During his playtime, he is under our supervision at any given time, so we always caught him or threw a cushion under him when he fell from the face of the fence. We knew he couldn't possibly climb over the 18" fence, but we were concerned with possible injuries sustained from falling down. So we bought him a 10" crystal exercise ball thinking he would like to just roll around in it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He would roll around for a while, but he wasn't happy because he couldn't get out of the ball when HE wanted.

So we finally decided to hedgie-proof a room for him and let him run free. He just LOVES doing that. He is happy as a clam just exploring every corner of the room each night for at least for an hour. He still tries to climb up our couch and our bodies, but he does so for fun and not out of desperation.

I must tell you that while our hedgie is a happy camper and doesn't climb his cage or playpen fence anymore, he still loathes being picked up or being held. It turns out, he is a so-called "runner". He loves to climb up and run all over our bodies, but he gets all upset if we try to hold him. He hisses & pops if our hand goes nearby. We wish he would cuddle with us, but we just have to settle for a happy healthy runner hedgie.

Ci Wei doesn't seem like a runner as he lets you hold him in your arms listening to your serenade. That's way more human-friendly than our hedgie. I'm sure that once he finishes quilling, he will go back to his normal temperament and you should be able to cuddle with him.

I know how discouraging and frustrating it is to see the creature you love so much try to run away from you, but sounds like your Ci Wei is properly socialized and he will enjoy cuddling with you once quilling is over, so just hang in there!

Hope sharing our experience with our hedgie will be of some assistance to you...

:hearts: