Heat Comes First in Every Visit
A pet hedgehog's comfort zone sits in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit, and unlike a wild animal he cannot afford a cold spell. If his room or enclosure cools too far, his body may attempt hibernation, which for a pet hedgehog is dangerous rather than restful. The sitter's first job at every visit is therefore thermal, not culinary: read the thermometer you have fixed at enclosure level, confirm the heat source is on and working, and check that bedding is dry.
Set this up so it cannot be improvised. Leave the thermostat or heater exactly as you run it, label the thermometer, and write down the lowest reading at which the sitter should call you the same day. A backup plan matters too: a spare heat source in a labelled cupboard and instructions for a power cut, even if that plan is simply moving the enclosure to the warmest room and phoning you, turns a rare event into a handled one.
Feeding at the Hour He Expects
Hedgehogs are nocturnal, and their feeding rhythm runs on your evening. Ask the sitter to offer his usual food at the same hour you normally feed, in the same bowl, in the same measured amount, so his night begins on schedule. Fresh water goes in daily at that same visit, and any fresh food offered alongside his staple diet should be the items he already knows, never a novelty chosen by a kind sitter.
The morning visit has a different feeding job: remove whatever fresh food remains uneaten, note roughly how much of the staple food went overnight, and record it. A hedgehog who suddenly leaves most of his food has given you the earliest available warning of illness or of a room that cooled in the night, and the sitter can only pass that warning on if noting the bowl is written into the routine.
Handling and Health Checks in the Evening
Build a brief evening handling into the schedule, at the hour he naturally wakes. A few minutes in the sitter's lap or on a blanket lets her see what a glance through the enclosure cannot: whether he uncurls as usual, walks steadily, breathes quietly, and feels warm rather than cool to the touch. A hedgehog who stays tightly balled, wobbles, or feels cold needs a warmth check immediately and a call to you and the vet if he does not improve as the room warms.
The sitter should also glance at the wheel each morning. A wheel used overnight is splattered evidence of a normal active night, while a clean wheel beside an untouched bowl, two nights running, is a pattern worth reporting rather than watching.
Keep the Rest of His World Boring
Stability is the theme of the whole routine. Same light pattern, so his sense of night and day holds; same bedding changed on your usual schedule, not more often for tidiness; no new foods, no new enclosure furniture, and no well-meant rearrangement. Visitors and household noise should stay at the level he is used to, and other pets stay out of his room.
Write all of it — temperatures, feeding hour, the uneaten-food check, the cold-hedgehog warning signs, and your vet's number — into a KinsLe Care Pass, so your sitter holds the exact routine on her phone and his warm, predictable nights continue undisturbed until you are home.