Hedgehogs in the veg garden

stardrops42

Went out this morning to check on the veg plot and discovered baby hedgehogs wandering around it:D I was so excited I ran back in to get my camera but by the time I got back they were just disappearing under a bush:( I think they have been nesting under the shed inside a bag of straw. I thought their seemed to be very few slugs and snails bothering my veg this year! I hope they stay:j

Mojisola

Lucky you!

welovemarmite

I would love to encourage hedgehogs, but sadly my plot has to be rabbit fenced, so no hope of getting them. I will just have resort to beer for slug control

stardrops42

Just found one curled up fast asleep outside the nest, can't begin to tell you how cute it looked:D Thought their was something wrong with it at first but eventually it woke up and just shuffled back into the nest:j

sunnysurrey_2

Aww how lovely

wallbash

We 'housed' a couple of underweight hedgehogs over the winter . We collected them from a sanctuary , named them Pins and needles.
Then we kept them warm . 24/7 heat pads so they would NOT hibernate.
Given strict instructions to weigh every week and fed them on cat food and meal worms . Only when they gained enough weight , well after xmas was the heat pads slowly turned down and the hibernated.

Aww how lovely

Sorry to bring you down to earth , but hedgehogs are not the cleanest animals and the smell is shocking.

When they did emerge , they had to be returned to the sanctuary , the people who left them there . have the option of returning the 'hogs' to the wild or their garden . i.e we did the work but was not ever allowed to keep /release them.

Mojisola

wallbash wrote: »

Sorry to bring you down to earth , but hedgehogs are not the cleanest animals and the smell is shocking.

They are normally flea-ridden as well as smelly. The fleas are host-specific but it still isn't nice when they run off the hedgehog up your arms or the dog's head is crawling with them because she thinks hedgehogs are her mortal enemies and tries to attack them.