Top 10 How Often Should You Clean Your Hedgehog Cage The 106 Correct Answer

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If you should change the bedding weekly depends on how much bedding you use in the cage and how accurately you do the daily spot cleaning. So for some, it would be ok to change after about 10 days, while others have to do it after 7 days. For the change itself, it is important that you remove all the old bedding.Weekly or Bi-Weekly: Fully Clean the Hedgehog Cage

One day each week, you should do a full cleaning of your hedgehog’s cage. If you do consistently spot clean it, it should be safe to do a full clean once every other week.Typically it’s suggested to spot clean daily (take out the obviously dirty parts of bedding), then do a full cage cleaning & bedding change at least once a week.

How often does a hedgehogs cage need to be cleaned?

Weekly or Bi-Weekly: Fully Clean the Hedgehog Cage

One day each week, you should do a full cleaning of your hedgehog’s cage. If you do consistently spot clean it, it should be safe to do a full clean once every other week.

How often should you change your hedgehogs bedding?

Typically it’s suggested to spot clean daily (take out the obviously dirty parts of bedding), then do a full cage cleaning & bedding change at least once a week.

How often do hedgehogs poop a day?

However, it only takes about 12-16 hours for food to pass through a hedgehog’s digestive tract. Hedgehogs don’t have a cecum, the lower portion of the intestine, like humans and other animals. It’s hard to say how often hedgehogs poop, but experienced hedgehog owners agree that these little critters poop constantly.

How do you clean hedgehog pee?

I blotted it up, put dish soap on it, half water and vinegar mix, and febereze for pet odors. (over the course of 1.5 weeks) and I can still pick up on the very faint smell of urine.

How do I keep my hedgehog cage from smelling?

To help keep the cage clean and smelling fresh, daily spot cleaning of feces, soiled bedding, and uneaten food items is recommended. Add fresh bedding as needed. If your hedgehog will use a litter pan this makes daily spot cleaning even easier.

What should be in a hedgehog cage?

Supply Checklist Before Taking Your New Hedgehog Home
  • Cage.
  • Hiding Hut/Hideaway.
  • Bedding/Cage Liners.
  • Heating.
  • Exercise Wheel.
  • Food.
  • Food Dishes.
  • Water Bottles/Dishes.

Why are there maggots in my hedgehogs cage?

Fly strike often means that a hedgehog is very sick and has been collapsed for some time, although flies can also target orphaned baby hedgehogs that cannot curl to protect themselves or wounded hedgehogs. The risk is that fly eggs hatch into maggots.

How often should I change my hedgehogs water?

Spot clean of cages – daily. Food and water dishes – rinse daily, wash weekly. Fresh fleece litter pad – every other day, no exceptions. Replace cage liner in cage #1 – weekly.

How often should I change cage liner?

Daily Liners: The liner of the cage should be replaced every day. Newspaper and other paper liners are easily replaceable and allow you to see your birds’ droppings. For smaller birds placing several layers down and removing the top layer is an option.

Do hedgehogs poop everywhere?

Define everywhere. Put it this way… there is the potential for them to be prolific poopers. However, with diligence and persistence, most hedgehogs can be trained to poop in a litter pan or a litter area.

Should you clean out a hedgehog box?

Hedgehogs naturally have external parasites such as ticks and fleas that can be transferred through nest use. Remove any bedding and then wash out the box using boiling water and leave it to dry out, and this will kill off any parasites.

Do hedgehogs like baths?

Many hedgehogs love to play in warm water and will enjoy themselves during bath time. We prefer to give hedgehogs a bath in a sink or a bathtub. Hedgehogs are prone to relieve themselves in the warm water so we prefer to use our laundry sink.

Do you need to bathe hedgehogs?

Most hedgehogs will need a bath even less than once per month. Hedgehogs become most dirty by stepping in their droppings, so to avoid extra baths, make sure to clean their cage regularly, around once a week or less if required.

How often should I change cage liner?

Daily Liners: The liner of the cage should be replaced every day. Newspaper and other paper liners are easily replaceable and allow you to see your birds’ droppings. For smaller birds placing several layers down and removing the top layer is an option.

Why are there maggots in my hedgehogs cage?

Fly strike often means that a hedgehog is very sick and has been collapsed for some time, although flies can also target orphaned baby hedgehogs that cannot curl to protect themselves or wounded hedgehogs. The risk is that fly eggs hatch into maggots.

How do I stop my hedgehog from pooping in the wheel?

One of the best ways to discourage wheel pooping is to wait a couple of days after you take your hedgehog home before putting in its wheel. Allow your hedgehog some time to hopefully establish a litter pan routine. Wheeling and hedgehogs is comparable to potty training toddlers at the park.

Do hedgehogs smell?

Hedgehogs don’t have any scent glands like ferrets, skunks, or even cats! So when we’re clean, we don’t have any particular scent. Like any animal, if they aren’t kept clean, they begin to smell funky. Since domestic hedgehogs are caged animals, we walk through whatever is in our cage.


Cleaning a Hedgehog Cage (2014)
Cleaning a Hedgehog Cage (2014)


​How to clean a hedgehog cage – The Original Poop Bags®

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Hedgehog Cage Cleaning: Basic Facts | Hedgehog Care 101

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Daily Spot Clean the Hedgehog Cage

Weekly or Bi-Weekly Fully Clean the Hedgehog Cage

Hedgehog Cage Cleaning: Basic Facts | Hedgehog Care 101
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Cleaning the Hedgehog’s C&C Cage – YouTube

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  • Most searched keywords: Whether you are looking for Cleaning the Hedgehog’s C&C Cage – YouTube Updating In this video I show you how I clean my hedgehog’s C&C cage. During the weekdays I spot clean the cage daily and on weekends I do the cage cleaning that I sh…cleaning a hedgehog c&c cage, hedgehog, C and C, bedding, Boxo, Eco Bedding, wheel, Carolina Storm Bucket Wheel, cleaning a hedgehog wheel, cute, adorable, hedgie, tunnels, tubes, cozy items, toys, pet, small pet
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Cleaning the Hedgehog's C&C Cage - YouTube
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How to Bathe your Hedgehog! – YouTube

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How Often Do You Have To Clean a Hedgehog’s Cage? – African Pygmy Hedgehogs

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1 Remove their poop daily

2 Change food and water daily

3 Clean exercise wheel regularly

4 Midweek partial cage clean

5 Full weekly clean

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How Often to Clean a Hedgehog Cage? Full Guide & Video – Pocket Pets Forever

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  • Summary of article content: Articles about How Often to Clean a Hedgehog Cage? Full Guide & Video – Pocket Pets Forever As we mentioned above, it’s recommended that once per week you do a full and thorough clean of your hedgehogs cage. This will be the most time-consuming part of … …
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How Often to Clean a Hedgehog Cage (More Info)

Full Weekly Hedgehog Cage Clean

Cleaning Bedding

Litter Box Training Your Hedgrhog

CleaningChanging Cage Liners

Cleaning The Exercise Wheel

Cleaning The FoodWater Bowl

Cleaning A Water Bottle

Cleaning Poop

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How Often to Clean a Hedgehog Cage? Full Guide & Video – Pocket Pets Forever
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How often should I be completely cleaning out my hedgehogs cage? – Quora

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How often should I be completely cleaning out my hedgehogs cage? - Quora
How often should I be completely cleaning out my hedgehogs cage? – Quora

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How Often Should You Clean A Hedgehog Cage Step By Step Guide – Hedgehog Registry

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How Often to Clean a Hedgehog Cage

Cleaning Your Hedgehog Cage

CleaningChanging Cage Liners

Cleaning Hedgehog Bedding

Which Bedding Is Best For Hedgehogs

What About The Bed

How Long Does It Take To Clean a Hedgehog Cage

Why Is It Important To Keep My Hedgehog Cage Clean

What Happens When I Don’t Clean My Hedgehog Cage

Can I Litter Box Train My Hedgehog

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Daily Spot Clean the Hedgehog Cage

Weekly or Bi-Weekly Fully Clean the Hedgehog Cage

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Hedgehog Cage Cleaning: Basic Facts | Hedgehog Care 101

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How Often Should You Clean A Hedgehog Cage

How Often Should You Clean Hedgehog Food Bowl

How Often Should You Clean Hedgehog Water Bottle

How Often Should You Clean Hedgehog Bedding

How Often Should You Clean Hedgehogs Wheel

How Do You Clean A Hedgehogs Cage

What Happens If You Don’t Clean Your Hedgehog Cage Often Enough

Final Verdict – How Often Should You Clean A Hedgehog Cage

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​How to clean a hedgehog cage

Hedgehogs are very cute and getting more popular as pets. As they are clean critters who groom themselves thoroughly, you’ll need to make sure they have a clean environment. Here’s what you have to do and why.

https://pixabay.com/photos/hedgehog-cute-animal-li…

Why a hedgehog cage needs to be cleaned regularly

Do you like a nice and tidy place? It’s the same for your prickly pal. But besides the feeling of a cozy and clean place, there are more reasons why your hedgehog needs a clean habitat.

Hedgehogs have a very sensitive respiratory system. Urine and feces in the bedding can lead to ammonia build-up, which can cause serious respiratory issues. Apart from that bacteria in the bedding can cause skin inflammations and footsore. As hedgehogs are prone to a lot of diseases, regular cleaning is just important to keep your friend healthy.

Additionally, mold builds up when old food isn’t taken away or the bedding gets too old and wet.

All the mentioned things are bad for the health of your little hedgie, but they will also make your room smell.

How often do you need to clean a hedgehog cage?

There is no fixed rule on how often you should clean a hedgehog cage. Several things should be considered when determining the cleaning schedule.

Is your hedgehog litter trained? Most hedgehogs tend to do their business just everywhere. But if you put some effort in, you can make them use a special area in their cage or a litter box. As litter you can use the Catfidence Organic Bamboo Litter it is free from dust and suits hedgehogs very well.

If you can’t potty train your hedgie, this trick will reduce your work by a significant amount: Put a tray under the exercise wheel. Most hedgehogs will make most of their messes while running in their wheel at night.

Other things that have an influence on your cage cleaning schedule are the amount of bedding and your daily spot cleaning habits.

https://pixabay.com/photos/african-dwarf-hedgehogs…

Daily spot cleaning

Some things you should do every day! Spot cleaning is definitely one of them. But don’t worry, it should be done in just a few minutes. These tasks are included:

Change wet bedding and remove feces

Remove old food and add fresh

Make sure there is enough water in the bottle

Change the litter if your hedgie is potty trained

Weekly bedding change

https://pixabay.com/photos/zoo-petting-zoo-animals…

If you should change the bedding weekly depends on how much bedding you use in the cage and how accurately you do the daily spot cleaning. So for some, it would be ok to change after about 10 days, while others have to do it after 7 days.

For the change itself, it is important that you remove all the old bedding. Clean the bottom surface and add new bedding after everything is completely dry.

Extra tip: Have a look at the running wheel and clean it as well when needed. Most hedgehogs tend to urinate and poop a lot in their wheels.

Monthly deep cleaning

The monthly deep cleaning is by far the most work-intensive. You need to clean the whole cage with everything in it once in a while and now is the right time.

As you will clean every single bar, surface and part of the cage, choosing the right hedgehog cage, in the beginning, can have quite a big impact on how much time you’ll spend. A removable bottom tray and wide doors for example make it a lot easier.

https://unsplash.com/photos/ULXu46fVCHY

You’ll spend less time when you prepare everything in advance and then clean everything in the right order.

Hedgehog Cage Cleaning: Basic Facts

Cleaning your pet’s cage should be one of the basic tasks to keep your hedgehog healthy. But How Often?

After you’ve learned how to set up your pet hedgehog’s cage and you’ve brought your hedgie home, you will need to make sure you clean out his cage regularly to ensure that he (and you!) are living in a clean environment.

There are a few different levels of cleaning that should be done regularly.

Daily: Spot Clean the Hedgehog Cage

Every day, you should take care of a few small items to keep your hedgehog safe and clean. This should take no more than five (5) minutes per day, and includes:

– Removing any visible feces from the cage.

– Take and dispose the food leftovers, washing out your hedgehog’s food bowl, and supplying with fresh meals and water.

Weekly or Bi-Weekly: Fully Clean the Hedgehog Cage

One day each week, you should do a full cleaning of your hedgehog’s cage.

If you do consistently spot clean it, it should be safe to do a full clean once every other week.

However, use your judgement: some hedgehogs make more of a mess than others, so if you notice that it looks or smells dirty, be sure to give it a full clean.

While you’re cleaning their cage, be sure to put your hedgehog in a cardboard box or have it supervised by another family member or friend until the cage is ready for him.

Cleaning out the cage should take about thirty minutes, and includes the following steps:

Remove all toys and blankets from the cage. Empty the cage of current shavings or paper and dispose of old shavings in an outdoor trash can. Wash out the empty cage with a soapy water and rinse thoroughly. This can be done outside or in a bath tub or shower. For a natural cleaning option, you can wipe the hedgehog cage with hydrogen peroxide (disinfectant) followed by vinegar, and rinse clean! Clean your hedgehog’s toys using the same method. Dry the cage and place down a new liner of newspaper. Fill the cage with new shavings. Return clean toys and blankets to the cage.

All this process should be pretty straightforward, however if you struggle finding safe disinfectant products, you can always use any alcohol as plan b.

How Often Do You Have To Clean a Hedgehog’s Cage? – African Pygmy Hedgehogs

Keeping a hedgehog’s cage clean and whether it was easy or going to be difficult, was researched by my daughter. Keeping a cage clean was essential to keep the hedgehog clean and healthy.

How often do you have to clean an hedgehog’s cage? Hedgehogs cage needs to be cleaned thoroughly once a week taking everything out of the cage and washing down the cage. A partial midweek clean is required to change their bedding and running wheels with a daily clean involving removing their faeces.

We’ve come up with 5 tips to make the cleaning process easier. Our 5 tips make it easy to set up a routine to keep the cage clean and keep the smells at bay, as hedgehogs poop and pee does smell and needs to be kept in check.

1. Remove their poop daily

Our daily routine includes removing any poop in the cage and we use a little portable vacuum which effortlessly sucks up the poop. Some poop may have tried onto the bedding and this will need to be separated from the bedding. We just use one part of the bedding as a glove and then pick off the poop.

Initially, we did use a litter tray and he did poop in this but this litter training only works to some extent because if they have a running wheel, the amount of poop that gets flung out around the cage as the hedgehog is running and pooping at the same time make having the litter tray pointless.

We also found the litter tray takes up too much valuable space in the cage and compromising on the poop being spread over the cage was an easy decision to make, instead of compromising on the space the hedgehog had.

2. Change food and water daily

Depending on the food we’ve used for our hedgehog, we decide whether we’ll need to change it after a day or two. If it’s something perishable, that is it goes off quickly then any uneaten food like this will need to be removed.

We tend to predominantly use dry cat biscuits and find our hedgehog doesn’t gorge on these and overeat, some hedgehogs may do and therefore it’s wise to find out what your hedgehogs eating habits are and adjust accordingly. As our hedgehog only eats when he’s hungry, we leave ample dry biscuits in his bowl over the week.

If we decide to give him something like chicken, then I tend to not leave it in his food bowl but nearer to his house to entice him out in the evening and any leftover is thrown away.

It’s imperative to change the water every day as hedgehogs may inadvertently poop in their own water as they move around. We have two sources of water in the cage, one is the water bowl the other is the water drip. Still unsure whether he uses the water drip, as the water level does drop but that may simply be because he keeps bumping into it.

3. Clean exercise wheel regularly

The running wheel can end up with loads of dried poop on it and if this is not regularly removed, the hedgehog can get injured when using the running wheel.

It’s a tough job trying to remove the poop so what we’ve done is invested in two running wheels with the dirty wheel left to soak overnight in water whilst the other one is in use.

The following the day the wheel that was left to soak is removed from the soak and any last remaining amounts of poop are wiped of using paper towels. The wheel is then left to dry and we’re quite lucky in having a conservatory which gets pretty hot in the warmer months, so the running wheel dries very quickly.

4. Midweek partial cage clean

We do a partial clean of the cage at least once a week and generally this clean is midweek and concentrates on us changing our hedgehog’s bedding and swapping out his dirty running wheel with a clean one.

Time for a partial clean

The first step in cleaning the cage is to make sure the hedgehog is put somewhere safe and we put down the new bedding in our other room downstairs and put his house on top. We put him near the house and he has a quick sniff, realises it’s his house and goes inside. He stays there while we clean his cage.

If your hedgehog is particularly inquisitive, you may need to put him inside a box as they may start to scurry around your house and the last thing you want is for your hedgehog to get stuck somewhere. We have sofas with a small clearing underneath and he used to make a dart for this, as it’s a dark place to hide.

If you do use a box, make sure it’s comfortable enough for your hedgehog and has some food because they can be quite hungry when they wake up. Or failing that, get someone else to look after them, whilst their cage is cleaned. I tend to look after him while my daughter cleans the cage, this gives her some responsibility for the hedgehog.

5. Full weekly clean

The full clean involves taking everything out of his cage and then washing the cage with soapy water. Only a very small amount of soap is mixed with the water and after the soapy water wash is completed, we rinse the cage thoroughly to ensure there is no soapy residue left behind.

I did contemplate doing this outside but I’m kind of worried about inadvertently bringing any insects or mites into the house unawares with his cage, so I use the shower room downstairs.

Newspaper bedding

The temptation may be to use newspaper as bedding, as this can be a cheap source of bedding and cleaning is as simple as taking the old newspaper bedding, throwing it away and replacing it with new newspaper bedding.

However, I’m not a big fan of newspaper bedding, as the ink used could be toxic, so I’d be worried about our hedgehog eating the newspaper and getting sick.

Newspaper bedding isn’t as absorbent as the cloth based bedding we use, so any water spillage or pee on the newspaper bedding won’t soak in as well as cloth bedding. As the hedgehog moves around, this could turn mushy and if it’s cold make the floor area where the soaked newspaper bedding is colder.

Fabric-based bedding

The fabric-based bedding we use is about a centimetre thick, that’s about a third of an inch, giving it plenty of ability to absorb our hedgehog’s pee and any water spillages from his bowl or his water tube.

Fabric bedding and cloth tunnel

Whilst using other types of bedding like cloth-based bedding involves having to wash these regularly making it feel as though it’s quite a chore, however it is definitely worth the effort. We have brought three cloth-based bedding, which is alternated, with at least one in the wash, one at hand and one being used.

Wood Shavings

We don’t also use shavings as again these may not be good enough to absorb any pee or water. So the hedgehog could again be walking in their own pee or through cold water.

Cloth Tunnel

We also have a cloth-based tunnel which our hedgehog likes to snuggle in sometimes and occasionally he can leave poop or he pees inside this tunnel. Maybe he becomes just a little bit too relaxed and forgets his manners 😊. Again we have two of these cloth-based tunnels and wash these alternately.

Hedgehog cloth tunnel

With any fabric bedding, the machine washing is the easy part, the drying is the problem especially in the cold months. The temptation may be too leave bedding on heaters and radiators but this can increase the moisture in your house and if it’s not adequately ventilated the mould.

We have a dryer in our utility room which is well ventilated, so it’s quite easy to dry the bedding and in the warmer months when our conservatory becomes a sun trap, we just leave the bedding here to dry.

We use a soft detergent which doesn’t have too many chemicals in and we have found it to be gentle especially with our daughter who used have outbreaks of eczema and when we changed the detergent to the current one, the eczema outbreaks fell dramatically.

Some detergents can have many chemicals which may remain even after washing, so it’s best to find one which is pet-friendly.

We also use cloth-based house cover as the plastic house isn’t dark enough for our hedgehog and this needs washing too. Fortunately, this doesn’t get too dirty, so can be washed less frequently.

Don’t go overboard and clean do a full clean every day, it’s just not worth the effort and doesn’t have any additional benefit. Moreover, it may become a burdensome chore which inevitably could lead to arguments or even an abrupt stopping of cleaning regularly altogether.

Scented cleaning products are a no-no

Don’t use scented cleaning products as hedgehogs have an incredible sense of smell and they may get distressed with scents and smells. It’s also important to remember any cleaning products used are not toxic for hedgehogs, as the last thing any hedgehog owner would want is for their hedgehog to become sick or worse still die from improper use of cleaning products.

Finally, the weekly system you use for your hedgehog will be based on compromises and trying to find the right balance of cleanliness. It took us a few weeks to perfect our system of cleaning and one established as a routine, it’s been fairly easy to maintain.

With the exception of vacations where the person looking after our hedgehog doesn’t have to do the full clean at the end of each week when we are away on holiday. This has the benefit of making it easier for us to find friends and family who are prepared to look after our hedgehog.

Conclusion

Daily cleaning is required for removing our hedgehog’s poop from the cage and also changing his food and water. Cleaning his exercise wheel, with a light clean of the cage can be done in the middle of the week. With a full clean of the cage done once a week.

Related Questions

How often do you bathe your hedgehog? Every 2 weeks we bathe our hedgehog and this along with our cleaning routines for his cage, ensures he doesn’t get too dirty in between these bath times.

Do hedgehogs smell? Yes, they do but by cleaning their cages regularly you can minimize on the poop that ends up on their feet and fur, alleviating the smell. We remove poop from our hedgehog’s cage on a daily basis.

So you have finished reading the how often should you clean your hedgehog cage topic article, if you find this article useful, please share it. Thank you very much. See more: hedgehog cleaning supplies, how to clean hedgehog cage, how often should i bathe my hedgehog, how often do you have to clean a hedgehog’s cage, hedgehog bedding, hedgehog cage setup, hedgehog names, how to potty train a hedgehog

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