DIY Hedgehog Habitat

I haven’t done a lick of spinning this week. I have some fiber drafted and ready to go but with the giftmas knitting chugging along and miscellaneous household chores coming up I haven’t had a chance. I will this week though. Dammit.

Another thing I haven’t had a chance to do is take a photo of the fuzzyfeet I finished for my father-in-law. Mostly because we’re on the darker side of the solstice and by the time I have a chance to think about it the sun’s already gone down. Grr. And I don’t like taking photos of my knitting with the flash my camera just isn’t good enough to do it justice indoors.

Ramona took a photo of the Bosque Sunset yarn for me though! Isn’t she sweet? I hope she makes something really cool with it.

I did manage to take some photos tonight of an ongoing diy project I’ve had for a few years now: the hedgehog cage. I was changing her bedding and needed to add a new heater to the bottom of the cage and thought I’d snap a few photos. Hey, it’s crafty right?

So basically I bought some sterlite organizer bins, heavy duty plastic zip ties, and had some plastic-coated aluminum closet organizer shelving cut to fit on top of the organizer bins at the Home Depot. I also bought some large connecting ferret tubes at the Petsmart.

This is what the current setup looks like

I took an old soldering wand and burned extra air holes along the tops of the bins and cut large holes to connect the bins with the ferret tubes. (I was basing the idea on this and a good deal of inspiration from this)

Important note: Using the soldering wand was really, really stinky - and toxic - but I was doing this in the summer so it was easy to just do it outside. It’s really important to do this in a well-ventilated area. While it was smelly and dangerous I wanted to do it this way rather than cutting with a box cutter or something because the burning process melted extra plastic around the edges reinforcing the holes and protecting the plastic from cracking.

I have a lot of experience with power tools, welding, and soldering (a degree in it, in fact) so if you’re leery of using a big hot metal stick to melt plastic a good alternative would be using a hair dryer to warm and soften the plastic enough to be able to cut it with box cutters, tin snips, or craft knife without such a big risk of cracking the plastic.

This is a side view where I connected the two lower cages with a ferret tube

I then used the zip ties to make hinges that connect the organizer bins to the shelving “lids”. I used a shorter piece of the shelving on the longer bin to leave room for the running wheel. The lids keep curious cats out of the cages but makes it easy enough for me to lift them up to check on Miss Zola Bean. Not that the cats have shown much of an interest in the hedgehog unless she’s having a free-range run and is coming right for them. Then they run like hell. But she eats a combination of food that includes cat food and even though they have access to at least two dry foods at all times I wanted to cover the cages because I’m paranoid worst-case-scenario pet mom.

The configuration has changed a bit over time. There used to be a third bin on the “Second Story” that Zola would have to climb in the ferret tube to reach but I decided that was too steep for her to be comfortable. So I just covered the hole with duct tape. There have been a few experiments where I tried to hang her wheel from a hole in the organizer bin or had a feeder hanging on the outside. She’s not much of an escape artist though.

The smaller bin on the left has Carefresh bedding and a cardboard tube she likes to get inside and rock back and forth making the tube roll. She also has a plastic bird toy hanging from the lid and a small fleece ball with a bell in it. This is pretty much her tubey room - where she sleeps with her head stuck in a toilet paper tube.

The larger bin is the one she uses most often. Probably because that one has food, water, heating, and the running wheel.

FYI: hedgehogs have very tiny sensitive (and a bit clumsy) feet so they can’t use the wire or mesh wheels because they can get their feet caught and really get hurt. The plastic bucket-style wheels (which are pretty easy to build or buy) are better. The good news is they don’t creak at night either. Sometimes when I’m in bed I can just barely hear her little nails tapping as she runs along in the other room.

It’s taken us years to get the heating set up properly in her cage. We used to just use heating pads under the cages but with safety regulations they all turn off after two hours and I wanted something that was more consistent. After a lot of looking around I found some reptile cage heaters that were safe to use on the outside bottom of acrylic cages. They’re very low wattage anyway but to be safe I plugged them into a rheostat so they’ll shut off if they get too hot. She’s a much MUCH happier hedgehog with a regular, warmer temperature and I don’t have to worry quite as much to check the temperature all the time.

I taped the heaters to the outside bottom of the larger cage with fire-resistant electrical tape. Right now there are two plugged in to the rheostat and a third one I can plug in if it gets too cold. I try to keep the temperature between 73 and 85 degrees F and I regulate that with a little digital thermometer with a probe taped on the inside wall with some more electrical tape. The heaters aren[’t overlapping on the bottom - they are edged with the electrical tape.

What I was doing tonight was adding the new larger heater to get more coverage. The smaller ones were the largest acrylic-safe heaters I could find before. The organizer bins have small feet built in but I also put some extra shelving underneath just to be sure it didn’t scorch the desk. It’s a tiny old pressboard desk so it’s really more about safety than the value of the desk.

Inside this bin I use washable corduroy cage liners that I change about once a week. The water bottle’s hanger fits perfectly in the indentation for the handles so I can close the lid. And I use a heavy crock for her food since she has a tendency to tip it over.

Another neat thing from the pins n needles website is a fleece cover for those microwavable heating discs that the
plastic pigloo fits right on top of when it’s really REALLY cold or I have a grumpy post-bath hedgehog on my hands.

The all the purple stuff was just a weird coincidence. That’s just the color those particular sizes come in.

Until she gets her Giftmas fleece tent I usually just throw a little fleece blanket on top of the pigloo to keep the heat inside. Sherry also sells little handwarmer sets so you can keep them warm while travelling. And yes, I even have the little hedgehog travel bag (in black) from her site. I’m a big fan of the pins n needles website. She’s even started selling excellent hedgehog food mixes.

So there you go. My DIY hedgehog habitat.

Winter’s bugging me for attention now but this is a cute photo I took of her last night.

When he was here Jocelyn’s boyfriend said that while they were really cute the photos of Winter just don’t do justice to her sweet personality. I completely agree. But I’m biased.