New Habitat Liners.

I have just finished making my new Habitat Liners and I was wondering what is the best way to go about replacing the current bedding in my hedgies homes in order to make the transition as easy and less stressful as possible. Any great success stories with the transition or horror stories? Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys! Also, my boy does like to dig, I plan to put a little area full of fabric pieces (no strings!!) for him to dig through. Does this usually help or should I use a different substrate. Thanks!

When I switched to liners(from Care Fresh), I also switched her cage, and replaced her pigloo with a hat and a hedie bag. So I basically turned her life upside down. My plan was that if Hot Dog had a freak attack and it lasted anymore than 12 hours, I would put a container of Care Fresh in her cage. I really didn't want to have to deal with a thousand pieces of care fresh sticking to the liner so the container is just to eliminate that problem. The thing was, Hot Dog had no real problem with the transition. She put up a bit of a "go to the bathroom" strike where she would either go on on her wheel, or in her food dish. But that was very short and ended within two days. My girl loves to dig too but since digging was her only way of hiding in her old cage(she hated her pigloo!), she had no choice. The only thing she actually sleeps in is her hedgie bag and occasionally her hat. Though many hedgies love strips of flleece, my hedgie doesn't know what to do with them so I just put in a t-shirt, and she will sometimes cuddle in that. Since I switched her cage along with the liners, I really have no idea which one of these things is a result of which...if that makes any sense. If I rememeber anything else about what happened, I'll post again. Good Luck!

My transition has just been finished. It ended up going pretty well! First, since my pinpig was not litter trained, I spent a week teaching her to go in the same place. Then when I was ready to install the liners, the day before I placed them in, I held her on my lap for a few hours in one of the liners. In this way, she got her smell on it and she knew it was a safe thing.

I switched the bedding out in the early evening of the next day, she was rooting around in a playpen while I worked. I made sure to put everything back in the same place, I didn't wash anything. Then, and this was key for my hedgie, I left some of her old carefresh bedding in the corner. Just two or three clumps.

When I put her in the cage she was going nuts running around it, taking exaggerated steps, licking and snuffling everything. As soon as she smelled her old bedding she immediately calmed down and waddled over to eat.

It's day two and she seems totally fine! Good luck-

Good to hear!! Just watch the poop... you'll know if she's freaking on the inside (though she seems fine on the outside) if her poop is greenish. Hedgies sometimes get stressed over changes like that and it manifests in poop.

I am waiting until Wednesday to change over to the liners, but I did make some hedgies bags for my hedgies and placed them in the cages now. They are made of the same fabric that I made the liners out of and they are taking well to them. I found Gryff sleeping under the hedgie bag, not in, but close enough and Huff had moved hers across the cage through the night. So, hopefully all will end well. Update to come soon, hopefully!:thumbsup:

I've never "transitioned" a hedgehog to liners. It's bedding, not food or water. You clean out the litter, put in the liner, plop in the hedgehog.

Seriously, don't over-think this. It's bedding.

I've never transitioned either. Just a plain out change. I've had a couple who wanted to burrow under the liners at first but given time they figured it out.

Sometimes you just can't win. When I noticed Anyong would burrow under her liners (even though she had hedgebags and other hidey spots) I went ahead and made little hidey blankets for her. For a while she was doing great, burrowing under the hidey blankets, but every now and then for variety I'll find the tell tale lump that lets me know that she's under her liner again. It's no big deal to me, as long as she feels comfy and safe

Poptart and Rose both burrowed. They stopped once I found what type of hidey place they wanted. Rose doesn't like snuggle bags to sleep in, she wants just a blanket to crawl under (you can fold it and she will sleep between the layers). Poptart the only thing I found she really likes is a nice cuddle cup with a blanket thrown over it to hide under. Both the girls are now sleeping in cuddle cups with blankies; it works and it gets them off of the plastic floor.

I can understand your concern... Kiah seemed to take awhile to get use to his bedding. We left his old bedding in hid litter box and tried to change nothing else in the cage. He kinds freaked out for a few days... Kinds frozen in his place whenever we put him in the cage. But he got used to it... Though he still doesn't use his litterbox *gr*
good luck!