Hedgehog appreciation! :D

Kyrae

Make sure you chop the peanuts up first, have read they can choke on whole ones, though not sure how true this is

Fay

You would be better buying some proper hedgehog food I think or meal worms. You don't want to risk hurting your hog, they're too precious for that. I think ours may have hibernated now but we will keep putting food out, in case. The magpies and local cats Hoover it up in the mornings anyway.

andrewf75

bouicca21 wrote: »

I certainly can't put food out, as the local foxes will scoff the lot.

Put a plastic box over the bowl with a hedgehog sized door cut into it and weigh it down with bricks. OK you might get rats or squirrels going in but keep an eye on it in the evening and you might see a hedgehog. They are like clockwork if they do visit.

cajef

We regularly have hedgehogs in our garden, we leave a bowl of fresh water out for them and feed them with a mixture of cat food, meal worms, chopped peanuts and sunflower hearts.

This autumn I placed a hedgehog house in a sheltered spot put a handful of hay in it and within a few days had a hog sleeping in it during the day.

Now that handful of hay has turned into a large nest of leaves, twigs and other garden debris with a tunnel into the centre of it and a hibernating hog in residence.:)

Mayflower10cat

I'd seen hedgehog poo occasionally around the garden (mostly smeared across the paving) but never in 10 years actually seen one. We back onto a farm and a river, there's a brambly bank and woodland which you would think would be perfect for hogs.

We feed two feral cats every night and being spoiled they often leave some food - looked out the patio window back in September and almost squeaked in surprise to see a good sized hedgehog actually IN the cat food bowl, hovering up the leavings! After that, we made sure to out extra cat food out, plus some nuts/peanut butter/odd bits of fruit.

We didn't always see the hedgehog but knew s/he'd been due to muddy little paw prints left in the bowl. Some weeks later I realised there were two hedgehogs checking out the patio, looking under plants pots and eating worms and moths, I think. They really liked reaching under the big pots (they are on ceramic pot-feet) for slugs.

A neighbour over the lane said to me, in 40 years he'd not seen a hedgehog yet they used to be common here. But he was delighted to spot one running across the gravel at the front of his house about the same time we were seeing out two.


Looking forward to seeing them when they wake up from hibernating!

altojack

Kyrae wrote: »

Just casually leaving this here... :P
http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/


I've become a bit of a garden hedgehog addict now we're getting them in the garden and I can watch them on a trail cam, just hoping the link might encourage a few other forum members to cut a hole in the bottom of their garden fence to let their local hedgehogs in! There's a fun map on there too where you can report local hedgehog sightings and see if anyone has spotted any already.


They're a good for money saving too (unless like me you end up spending a fortune on hedgehog houses and food! ), you'll never need to buy slug repellents again! My hostas survived without slug damage for the whole summer since the hedgies showed up!!


Anyone else out there a hedgehog enthusiast?

Well done on posting the link, I've been signed up with them for a few years now. Loads of information and a great forum full of helpful tips.

Kyrae wrote: »

Make sure you chop the peanuts up first, have read they can choke on whole ones, though not sure how true this is

Very true, the nuts need to be crushed so the pieces are very small otherwise the hogs can choke. They have very small mouths and can't bite big hard lumps of food

altojack

The reason hedgehogs are around in some areas just now is due to the fairly mild weather. However, they need to be over 600grams to be save to hibernate. Lower than that, they won't survive.

Don't feed them mealworms as as much as they love them there isn't enough goodness nor do they give them the fat making goodness they need to put on weight.

If feeding cat food please give them meaty food in jelly, no fish please and no cat food in gravy as gravy gives them an upset tummy.

You are better off feeding them something like Go Cat Kitten Biscuits or any other kitten biscuits as these are small. Wet cat food has a chance of freezing during the winter weather.

Always leave a dish if water out for them too

eDicky

I had a regular hedgehog visitor in my suburban Essex backyard last year, named George. I occasionally saw a smaller one, whom I supposed might be Mrs George, perhaps in the hope of their producing further participants in the reduction of my slug epidemic. I never fed them, except occasional leftover scraps, in case it might reduce their pest control effectiveness.

Then one evening we heard some strange sounds and went to investigate. The two of them had come across each other, and did not seem to be exchanging terms of affection as husband and wife hedgehogs might be supposed to do. It seemed more like a facing off between two males, emitting a kind of snorting and grunting sounds, at a safe distance from each other in a patch of wild strawberry plants.

Oh well, no welcome patter of tiny feet this year I suppose...

harrys_nan

Can I just add,
Never put milk in any form out for them, they are lactose intolerant.