Hedgehogs are nocturnal creatures, hence if you were to expect some playtime in the daylight, do not be alarmed, as chances are it will still be asleep for most of the day.
Hedgehogs will most probably not be awake until the sun has set and the daylight is out, most of the time during the evenings. It is quite common for most hedgehogs to be sleeping between 18 to 20 hours a day.
For the little ones, they are able to sleep for more than 20 hours a day, hence it is important to wake your baby hedgehogs up for playtime if it has been sleeping for most of the time.
Unless if it decides that it is hungry during the day, it will spend most of its time in its hideout sleeping and only wakes up at night to play, eat and drink.
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What time do hedgehogs wake up?
Hedgehogs typically only wake up once the daylight is out usually around the evenings. Even if it is the wee evenings, certain hedgehogs might still not like the light and it would stay in their hideout till the sun complete sets and there are no lights surrounding its enclosure.
Where does hedgehog sleep?
In the wild, as they do not have any hide box or shelters given to them, as long as they are able to find any dead leaves, hedgerows, a pile of hays, log pile, or thick hedge, they will assemble these items together to form a comfortable nest for themselves.
Their habitat in the wild is quite similar to your backyard, they prefer to live in places with greeneries. Places that are filled with shrubs and tall grasses, forests and suburban gardens are ideal habitats for hedgehogs.
In captive, a couple of essentials that I would recommend would be Care Fresh natural paper bedding or fleece blanket as bedding. And also place a couple of hideouts such as igloo house or this cozy cotton bed. You can also DIY using cereal boxes or any sort of boxes where they can use as a discreet shelter and call it home whenever the daylight is out. Fleece pouch or PVC pipes are also low-cost alternative shelters.
It is also important to allow adequate space for it to roam around as they will get stressed if the enclosure is too small for them. Always remember to have at least 2 bowls, one for food and one for water.
If you are housing your pet hedgehog alone, you should get him/her a play toy or a hamster wheel for it to keep itself entertained.
If you would like to find out more on how to properly set up the ideal hedgehog environment for it to call it home and feel comfortable, find out more here at our step by step hedgehog housing guide.
Why does my hedgehog keep sleeping?
There are certain seasons where you will notice that your pet hedgehogs fall into a deep slumber and this is because of either climate changes or the space that it is in would “trick” it into thinking that they need to pull through a bad weather condition such as a drought or winter.
An obvious and easiest way to tell if your hedgehog is about to enter hibernation mode is to have a feel at its belly or stomach.
If it feels cold, you would need to warm the enclosure up immediately to keep your pet hedgehog all nice and warmed up. The rule of thumb that any pet hedgehog owners should know is to keep the temperature of the cage around the range of 72 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit, or 22 – 27 degrees Celsius.
Be sure to also keep a lookout if it were to exhibit other symptoms like signs of sluggishness/lethargy, almost complete loss of appetite, not drinking much water, unable to unball itself, unsteady movements, or if it is taking heavy breaths.
A hedgehog should not be underweight as it is hibernating as it will consume its own body fat while hibernating and if it is underweight, it will die of starvation if it is not able to get out of that hibernation phase to look for food.
Hedgehogs will enter into their hibernation if they were to feel that there is a scarce of food or if there were to be climate or temperature changes.
Through hibernating, it is their way of tiding over the winter and this is seen as a survival trait. However, hibernation to a hedgehog is not as simple to just fall asleep for a long period of time.
Some dangers it will be prone to would be its immune system where it will drop significantly as it enters hibernation, and as it goes into a deep sleep, its metabolism rate will also slow down, making it an easy target to infections, illnesses, starvation, and dehydration.
Always remember to replenish freshwater and food and maintain the right temperature as mentioned above, 72 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
How to change a hedgehog sleep schedule?
Here is a step by step guide that will allow any hedgehog owners to change their pet hedgehogs sleeping schedule. First and foremost, it is important to know and I would like to emphasize again that hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, hence, as much as you would want your friends to interact with it during the daytime, they should be left alone till night falls.
All hedgehogs would follow a default sleep schedule which is sleeping through the day and be waking up active during the night.
Step 1: Monitor your hedgehog’s default sleep schedule
After bringing home and settling your pet hedgehog into its cage/home, you should monitor its sleeping schedule for a couple of days and make changes from there on.
For instance, my previous hedgehog has a typical sleep schedule like most hedgehogs out there, they will fall asleep for most of the day as soon as the sun is up to all the way till the evening which is about 7 – 8 pm onwards where the sky is dark.
Every hedgehog would have its own unique sleep schedule and you should slowly make changes to it.
Do not disrupt its nocturnal sleep schedule too much as after all, they are active during the night and if you are looking for a pet to play during the daytime, a hedgehog would not be suitable for you after all.
Step 2: Conditioning your hedgehog
After discovering your pet hedgehog sleep schedule, say for instance mine would go to bed around 6 to 7 am and only wakes up around 8 pm onwards.
Make small changes progressively, such that if you have a day job and you will only reach home say around 6 to 7 pm, go have your dinner and your bonding time with your hedgehog can start right after dinner, say a good 2 to 3 hours of playtime with it would suffice during the weekdays.
If your hedgehog is still sleeping even as the evening hits, try waking it up gently and entice it slowly with food and treats.
Slowly, luring it out of the cage and spend time with it. Do not grab your hedgehog directly and wake it up when it’s asleep, no one would like to be manhandled abruptly when they are sleeping soundly do they?
NOT RECOMMENDED: if you have a pet hedgehog but due to work commitments you would only knock off in the day and work in the night, here is how you can make changes to your hedgehog’s sleep schedule, but this has to be done at the right way else it may cause tremendous unnecessary stress to your pet hedgehogs.
Depending on where your hedgehog cage is situated at, if you are home, start by slowly dimming the lights, or pulling the curtains to ensure that no daylight can penetrate into its enclosure and the vicinity around it.
After doing so, gently wake it up at the same time monitoring its behavior to see if it is reacting positively or negatively to it. Dedicate 2 to 3 hours of bonding/playtime with it daily, and depending on its behavior, you should adapt accordingly to increase or have the time remain the same.
Step 3: Maintaining consistency
If your dinner time usually ends around 8 or 9 pm, make it a habit by consistently waking it up, and repeatedly doing certain things in order to get it to form a habit.
Some hedgehogs may take a longer time to adapt whereas some may take as short as a couple of weeks for them to get used to their new schedule. Small things such as the way you are waking it up should be consistent, and the time that you wake it up should also not be that far apart.
If you were to offer it treats or food whenever you were to wake it up, do the same, nothing different. Through perseverance and a little bit of effort, I am sure you would be able to achieve the outcome you want. To spend time with it, at the same time not disrupting its sleep schedule.
By doing certain things consistently, habits are being formed. It will be beneficial for both hedgehog owners and hedgehogs as they are getting used to a habit together.
Step 4: Monitor for any negative cues
The crucial aspect is to monitor for any negative cues along the way. In the event if your hedgehog was to exhibit strange or aggressive behavior, means it does not like to be woken up a certain manner, try to adapt around it by waking it up at a slightly later time, or by changing the location of where the cage is being placed as there might still be daylight penetrating.
Things, like softening the music, switching off your TV, or even dimming or turning your lights off completely, would make a difference.
If your hedgehog is not responding positively, do not try to alter its sleep schedule as you may stress your little guy out. Changes have to be made small but incrementally, not radically.
Conclusion
Hedgehogs spend most of their time sleeping and they are nocturnal creatures, to begin with. In the ideal world, it is best not to disrupt its sleep schedule at all, but rather, making small changes and keeping it consistent to introduce new habits to your hedgehogs.
If your hedgehogs were to enter into a deep slumber to hibernate, you should try to prevent that from happening as an underweight hedgehog would die of starvation if it were to enter hibernation mode.
Hedgehogs would enter hibernation if its belly were to feel cold to the touch. This would trigger it into thinking that a cold weather is approaching and it will slowly enter into hibernation.
If it is well-fed, it would last through the hibernation but if it is not being fed well with inconsistent diets, it would not be well-prepared to last through the hibernation phase and some would eventually die.
Hence proper care and adequate attention are needed as to any other pets including hedgehogs. They are a lifelong commitment and you should treat them like one of your own.
Ensure that it is well taken care of, it’s bedding is comfortable, enough hideouts and toys to keep itself entertained and last but not least, food and water are the essentials that it should have.
The ideal temperature that the hedgehog cage should be in would be 22 – 27 degrees Celsius.
It is always good to have a thermometer at its cage to keep track of any temperature changes. Not all of us would have the same work schedule and free time allocated to bond with our hedgehogs.
If you have a 9 – 5-day job, it would be perfect for you to play with it because when you get home and you’re all done with dinner, it will be up by then. If your job requires you to work on night shifts and you will only be back in the day, fret not, you are able to introduce small changes and habits without compromising their sleep time.
A good 2 – 3 hours of bonding time daily is adequate for most hedgehogs. The key to making it a habit is to maintain consistency, do certain things the same way for a while, and over time you will see that your hard work pays off when it is slightly awake even before you are there to wake it up for playtime.
I hope this hedgehog care guide is helpful to all hedgehog owners out there, if you have any answers pertaining to hedgehogs and their sleep schedules or even hibernation where you feel that I have not covered or elaborated more on, feel free to let me know under the comments section and I will continue to improve this copy to help educate all hedgehog owners out there!
