My first hedgehog.

[Urchinella]

My state of the art hedgehog house arrived today, tonight it already has a resident, fast asleep.

This is my face >>>>

Best thread ever

I have hedgehog envy. Never seen one here. Masses of bloody badgers instead.

Ours comes every night for some hedgehog food. We bought a hog house but s/he isn’t interested. I never get bored of seeing him/ her! The visits are getting earlier as the nights draw in.

Bloody brilliant! Now I know what to ask for for Christmas!! Thought we might have hogs but now suspect from internet searching that the poo I see regularly is badger. Does this mean that hogs wont come to my house?

@CoraPirbright Unfortunately yes I read that if you have badgers you won't get hedgehogs 😔

What a lovely thread.

So, being someone who gets a bit carried away, I thought I must get a proper feeding station. I googled and discovered the see through under bed storage box idea, so I've bought the box, cut out the opening put newspaper in and food dishes, lid back on and it's going outside in a minute. Hopefully I'll now be able to see exactly what happens and clear up easily each day.

Fingers crossed. What could possibly go wrong?

How lovely seeing all the pictures.

It worked.

Oh boo hiss! Thanks for the info though Witchery.

One warm night my neighbour was a bit alarmed by what sounded like someone breathing very heavily under her open bedroom window. There was a weird rhythmic clonking noise too.

She woke her OH and persuaded him to investigate. He went down armed with a torch and returned with the giggles.

A pair of hedgehogs were mating enthusiastically inside two very large stacked flowerpots that had fallen on their side. That was the clonking sound. The breathing sound was caused by the pots amplifying their normally silent breathing until it sounded like a scary man.

I saw one or other of the hedgehogs several times, though never two at once. I never knew hedgehogs got as carried away as those two obviously did.

Once, when we were kids we slept in the garden over night only to be rudely awoken by some VERY loud grunting. My sister was terrified and convinced it was wild boar- we were rural but not that rural!
Turns out Hedgehogs just outside your tent are very loud!

A hedgehog ran through my back garden a few weeks ago. There are a lot of cats that hang around my back garden though so if I put a hedgehog house in they would probably be straight in there. We also live next to a country park and the street around the corner had a problem with rats a while back!

Love!

Fan pic Urchinella you have a beauty there.

Lucky people with all the visiting hedgehogs!
My user name is because I’m a volunteer with a local hedgehog rescue.

The fleas hogs have are host specific, so you may get a few on you, your dog or cat, but they can’t survive and multiply on other animals.

Badgers can kill and eat hedgehogs, but a chap in our group regularly gets hogs and badgers, along with foxes, happily eating the food he puts out together. We tend not to re-release hogs where there’s a known badger prescence though.

Hogs are lactose intolerant, so please don’t give milk, bread, cake (we do still find well-intentioned people feeding this.) Meat based tinned dog food or small kitten/cat biscuits are best. A few mealworms, CRUSHED peanuts or sunflower seeds are appreciated but but should be considered a treat. Fresh water should always be available.

Sorry, I’ve wafflfed. I just luff them though

Mum and her 2 babies who I cared for last year.

I found a hog in the garden a few weeks ago when I was tidying... think I exposed him though his nest wasn't very good

We bought him a house though have seen no sign yet

Just tonight I found something had dug under the shed. We're hoping it's hedgie and not vermin

Reggies rejected house

This is brilliant! 😍😍😍 I love hedgehogs so much!!

I bought some more hay today, not sure why, but piled up a load outside his house. While he's scoffing again I took a peek, he's moved the whole lot inside. How he's ever going to get back in there I can't imagine.

Can hedgehogs get too fat? or is it ok for them to eat as much as possible before they hibernate?

They can get too fat and it becomes dangerous for them if it stops them being able to curl up fully, as then they’re at risk from harm from other animals.

When they can’t fully curl, parts of their soft underside are still exposed, where all the soft hair is, so if, say, a dog picked one up, then injuries could happen to the soft areas.

I’m often amazed at just how much nesting material a hog can cram into their bed and still be able to fit in

Just had a look at the hole under the shed in daylight and there is a heck of a lot of soil has been moved, so guessing not a hog?

We had planned to take the shed down so will do it pronto to give whatever is there chance to find new lodgings

Oldraver, Ronnie the fox?

Ah, I'm going to put extra hay outside the house today so if there is one around he can drag it in - I put some inside last year and some leaves.

Well a fox would be ok... not even thinking of it being vermin. The cat has been interested in the opposite side of the shed for a while. The side that's been dug out is whee the shed is about 2ft from a stone wall and trellis at the front of the shed so it's not been noticed... till I was climbing up it to see who the cat was fighting

Ha read that back and realised some will think a fox vermin

I am just putting any idea of rats out of my mind