Activites? Ball Or No?

[Bailey59]

Little side note; Pompeii has exceeded his limits of activity. In his huge playpen he is always at the wall trying to get out and runnin' like a manic. He is always digging and trying to tunnel in the fleece. He was born 10/22/13. Pompeii is a pooping machine! You have no idea...

I was wondering if hamster balls are Ok to use. My guess is no because of their spines bending the wrong angle but I am trying to find any activities I can do with him. I do hope in the summer that I can set up his playpen outside for him. Is there any activities that he can do by going and exploring? Could there be any thing like a ball where you would have to roll to get out treats? SOMETHING to keep him occupied and a happy camper for my explorer/daredevil.

Than k you for your help!

 

[Raindog]

The ball is, for the most part, not recommended. It is completely solid except for some breathing slits, which can easily catch a hedgehog toenail. Also when the poop machine aspect kicks in, they are now running in poop with very little ventilation. I am also not sure how many hedgies actually like it.

That being said I have one. Quinn, my first hedgehog hated it. He just sat in it and stared at me until I took him out. I decided to try with Luna on Thanksgiving. After her foot bath and nail trim in she went, and promptly went to the bathroom. Got her out, the ball cleaned, and back in. After showing her how it works, she loved it. She was able to explore the downstairs which she is not allowed to do otherwise. However she was watched like a hawk.

If you decide to try the ball make sure you get the biggest, it is around 12 inches in diameter. Don't get upset if he hates it. Also please watch him carefully when he is playing with this. With their feet and the pooping thing it is definitely not an low or unsupervised toy.

I love PVC pipes like the ones that you can get at Home Depo or Menards for my hedgies. Quinn loved his so much he slept in the one in his cage every night. For Christmas my boyfriend got Luna a big mess of PVC pipes. S-curves and a couple of straight lines I can put together however I want. It is meant to be made into a tower. She loves them. She would run around in them for hours.

The drawback is you can't see through them so you can't watch them having fun.

 

[akane]

Do you have a wheel for the playpen? We keep an extra on hand for that. Ours also have plastic cat balls (throw the foam ones in the multipacks away if you get them), 4" pvc connection tubes, toilet paper tubes (supervise in case they get stuck), and some bird toys they like to drag around and chew on the stringy bits. Ones like this http://www.petco.com/product/104723...s-And-Stars.aspx?CoreCat=MM_BirdSupplies_Toys that are light weight with chewy things to play with. They don't really chew anything off them but just crunch them up and drag them around until they are tattered and need replaced. There are also big grass balls in some stores that they can push and chew on. I haven't seen them at petco lately though and our last one got eaten by a rabbit.

 

[smhufflepuff]

I'm not a fan of the hamster balls for hedgies for the reasons Raindog cited.

There's not a lot of ventilation in the first place. Running turns hedgies into poop machines. So now you have a ball of poop.

The small holes can catch a nail or a toe leading to a ripped nail and/or broken toes.

It's hard to tell if they're running because they think it's fun vs they're terrified, so they try to run away, yet they're trapped in there, so they try to run away, so... (unless circle of terror).