Advice

[LexieHeg]

So, a few weeks ago I posted on here about Lexie getting really sick and not eating. We nursed her back to health and she's been good since, but over the last week we have noticed she was slowly eating less and less each night (from 20-30 kibble a night, down to between 9 and 12). We took her to the vet immediately, they ran some more tests (some of which we are still waiting on results from) but for the most part she is really healthy.

Both the vet and I am baffled.The only thing we've changed since she last got sick was her wheel, we got her a bigger one. We spend the same time with her everyday during the same hours. Her temp is good, her activity level is great, but yet she is eating less and gaining weight very slowly from her last illness.

I remembered that when she was sick before, the only way she started eating her kibble again was when I put her dish in her hut. So, the last two nights I've started putting her food into her igloo with her again, and she ate 20 kibble one night and 29 last night and today. :err:

Could it possibly be she doesn't like where her food is? Has anyone else had this issue? Of course we are still waiting on the test results to see if something else is going on inside...but the Vet is genuinely baffled as she cannot see any reason why Lex isn't eating. She is so inconsistent in her kibble consumption...some nights its 28, others its 14...is this normal?

Any advice is greatly appreciated....

 

[LovinHedgies]

The first thoughts that came to mind are - she doesn't feel safe to eat "out in the open" so she likes to be in her hut to eat and her eating may vary by how much she is wheeling. Do you have a set-up to track how much she wheels? I personally do not have one, but I know some hedgie owners use bike odometers to track the miles wheeled.
Also is she still gaining weight or has she started to lose? Her getting older may decrease her calorie needs...
Hopefully someone with more knowledge/ideas will come along soon

 

[Kalandra]

It could be she also likes her new wheel so much that she is "forgetting" to get off and go eat. I had this problem with Cooper for a good long while. He had always had a smaller, crummy wheel. Once presented with a higher quality wheel the boy ran... and ran... and ran. Some nights he ran over 7 miles, I think his record was 9. Most nights he ran for over 6 hours, many closer to 7-7.5 hours, and all between 10pm and 6am. The nights the odometer read 7.5 hours for activity, he barely ate and his weight dropped.

At one point, when his weight had dropped a lot, I actually was waking up at 5am to check his wheel and remove it to encourage him to eat. Which worked. But at 6am when the wheel went back in, he was back on it for at least 15 more minutes. I always kept some food in his bed so that if he woke up during the day it would encourage him to eat.

As time went on, he started to get off his wheel more and go eat. This boy loves his wheel and gets very defensive when you take it away. Even though he is quite sick and cannot run on it, he still looks for it and gets mad when it is removed. He wants it there even if he cannot use it.

As for for not liking how a cage is laid out. Certainly. Some can be picky about their layout. Usually I find they move stuff around though and will tell you where they like it.

 

[Nancy]

My Gladys has decided she will only eat if the kibble is put in her hedgie bag with her. Glady's just had an oral tumour removed but the food issue has been going on for 7 months.

Some of them are very sporadic about how much they eat per night. Sometimes we can figure out why but often there is no reason for the differences. I have found that for some, the warmer the room is, the more they eat. Others are the opposite and the nights their room temp is cooler than normal, they eat more. :wacko: