burrowing under liners. help?

hey there! its been a while, but i recently built on an addition to the c&c cage for grumpy and sookie. ever since i altered the cage, they both seem to love to burrow under their fleece liners to sleep! i even have large igloos with fleece strips for them to burrow in and sleep bags i made out of fleece, but it never fails, every night they go under the liner!

i normally wouldnt care too much but they often go under the towel i put under the liner, therefor they sleep on the cold coroplast resulting in a few hibernation scares. i have heat lamps going but it doesnt warm up the plastic bottoms.

so my question is- does anyone have any advice for getting the liners to stick down so they dont burrow under it? i thought about velcro but dont know if its safe or if it would be strong enough. any help is appreciated!

I need help with this problem too :S I use velcro but my chins tug the fleece and chew up the velcro... Tried weighing down the fleece with objects, but houses, marble tiles, and everything else just end up in a pile with the fleece... I thought about magnets, but if they can defeat velcro I'm sure magnetic force won't be much of a challenge!

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Since they are having hibernation attempts with burrowing under the liners I personally would try using velcro on the bottom liner and then placing a second liner on top so that they can still safely burrow. I would think that the stick on velcro would be plently strong, unless your hedgies are absolutely determined to go under both liners.
Could you try a heating pad? Not exactly sure how your set-up looks and if it could be elevated some to accomodate a heating pad. You would definately have to have temperature control with the pad.
Last question - do you have heat lamps or a CHE set-up? If you have a CHE set-up maybe try lowering the temperature probes that are used to control the temperature. The whole cage (including the floor) really should be warm enough for the hedgie...

these are definitely good ideas. im going to try velcro and i bought extra liners just in case. i have a che set up but i havent had the cold plastic issue since i turned up the heat. they dont seem hot and sookie hasnt tried hibernating again so i think the heat set up is finally good!

now ive run into a secondary problem that i think is linked to sookies burrowing issue! i noticed last night that her skin is very very red and shes been itchy! she doesnt lose quills and her ears are fine so i dont think its mites. i think because of all the running and pooping/ peeing on her wheel and then sleeping on the plastic is making her skin irritated. all that stuff is rubbing onto her skin and being under the blanket and on top of the plastic isnt absorbing the bad stuff. im going to rig her cage with velcro and hope that helps and make sure everything is being washed with fragrance free stuff. is there anything i can do in the meantime besides oatmeal and olive oil?

I took the opposite approach with Satin. She really prefers sleeping under her liner, but would occasionally get too chilly. I have her cage on a table and tuck a fleece blanket between the table and the bottom of her cage - that way, there's no air flow underneath that robs her warmth.

She does, occasionally, get irritated on her underside from pooping/peeing, then settling down on top of plastic that doesn't help to absorb any wetness. We just treat with a nice bath and, once fully dry, we put on a layer of vaseline to seal out the yuckies. If it's looking particularly bad, we use neosporin instead of the vaseline. Where on her body does Sookie's skin become irritated? Depending on the location and how good/bad it's looking, I'm thinking clear water bath, drying thoroughly, and considering something to block the poop/pee moisture. Also make sure that her poop/pee from the wheel isn't soaking through from the top of the fleece to under where she is. You can add another layer of fleece near the wheel (like a wheel mat) if it's soaking through.

Good call on the bath and washing her stuff in scent-free detergent. We go for the scent-free, dye-free detergent and dry without using dryer sheets - you may already being doing this, but I thought I'd jot it down just in case.

Thanks for the tips! I gave her a bath with just a drop of her oatmeal bath to calm her skin but added some flax seed oil to moisturize since I think oatmeal dries it out too. I also added some flax seed oil to her food, so hopefully that helps. I've been using scent free detergent and no dryer sheets, but realized we've been using scented dish soap to clean her wheel so that could be the cause too.

Is Vaseline safe? I thought neosporin was a no-no. It's mainly her underbelly and it isn't too bad, although when she itches a lot, obviously her skin becomes redder. I checked her today by waking her up (she hated it!) and she looked better but the belly fur is still thinner than what grumpy's fur looks like.

I'm still going to try the velcro but I cut pieces of her liner and layered them asymmetrically and also arranged her cage so that she isn't able to pull up the blanket from the sides. When she saw I did this she finally gave up and went into her fleece bag. Progress!

If this doesn't work I will definitely take your advice and work around the fact that she just loves burrowing! I think the extra layer of fleece idea is good. She'll be able to burrow and wont keep sleeping in her own dirt on the plastic!

Regular neosporin is fine. Do not use the extra-strength or any type that has pain relievers in it. When I use it, I put a small dab on the end of a q-tip and rub it across a wound.

I don' t know if anyone has recommended this or not, but you may also want to add something for her to burrow under. I have one that likes to do this occasionally. Poptart likes to burrow if the cage liner under her bed has wrinkles in it. I swear she is a princess and has discovered the pea.

She also gets in moods where she likes to just burrow. I keep a fleece/flannel blanket in her cage, and keep the edges of it draped over a fleece covered oatmeal container, and occasionally I add a pigloo with strips of fleece thrown inside. It seems to keep her satisfied.

thats good to know about the neosporin! i dont think sookie is gonna need it but its good to know just in case.

i have a large igloo with fleece strips in it but she never goes in there. maybe if i fill it almost to the brim? i think she knows theres no way to actually burrow in it. i have also tried a piece of fleece on top of the liner but its the same thing, shes figured out its a trick! ill try more fleece in the igloo and let everyone know how the velcro rigging turns out!

Hedgehogs are extremely intelligent and stubborn. Once they get something stuck in their head that they want to do, they are going to do it. They will keep you on your toes to come up with new and clever ideas on how to either encourage something or to prevent it.

Sometimes the only prevention is to encourage the behavior, but in a way that is less "risky" (ie getting chilled). Hopefully you will find something that she likes and will work for her.

I'd keep trying various beds, snuggle bags, and places to burrow. I have had some that liked to sleep in a container filled with bedding, others liked pigloos, snuggle bags, cuddle cup bed with blankets, blankets folded over, etc.

I also have this issue...as a matter of fact Lexie doesn't burrow under the liners, she lives under them. She walks around and even sleeps in her hut, under the liner. We ended up using objects to weigh down the liner and filled her hut with fleece strips - she's in heaven now and hasn't even tried to move any of the objects we use to weigh down her liner. She has always had lots of hiding places (a hut, tunnel, tent and box) but we only just introduced her to fleece and she is in LOVE.

Try using things to weigh it down and provide lots of alternate burrowing places and see if that helps! Good luck!