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Original poster

Can you train a hedgehog?

89 replies

mineofuselessinformation · 11/11/2021 19:09

I have one, sometimes two hedgehogs that visit my garden regularly to eat. I'd dearly love for them to hibernate in my garden and make it their home - I've bought a good quality hedgehog house in anticipation!
I've moved the food bowl a bit and they know where to find it, so I'll move it a bit every few days, hoping to end up at the hedgehog house.
Does anyone know if they will investigate the house if I can eventually put the food on the entrance?
I appreciate this might be a bit niche! 🦔🦔🦔🦔

OP posts:

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hedgehogger1 · 29/04/2022 22:22

I've got the riverside ones too now. Started with cheaper ones and they seem to have been a false economy. Joined the "hedgehogs!" Group on Facebook a while back and I've learned so much, including how much of the stuff marketed as being good for hogs is really bad for them: Shouldn't be allowed!

User7493268965 · 29/04/2022 22:23

We have a hedgehog house and they do sometimes pop in for an hour or two between feeding, they are also quite industrious sometimes going to and fro filling it with leaves. If two come to feed, one can sometimes get a bit bossy and run and headbutt the other and the poor thing goes rolling off.

Feministwoman · 29/04/2022 23:23

The ones we have nest where THEY want, so under pallets in the barn, inside a thicket of dead ferns, under one of the many piles of debris we leave around.
They've ignored any man made hog houses, but deign to eat the food and water we put out.

Very like a lot of cats, tbh!

They are independent little souls, and resist doing what we humans want them to. As is their right.

I do like Hoggies

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User7493268965 · 30/04/2022 06:17

We did have one that was under the rhubarb patch one year

Musicalmaestro · 30/04/2022 06:58

How lovely to read everybody’s hedgehog news!

zaffa · 30/04/2022 07:08

That's wonderful OP! A few years ago we stumbled (quite literally) over a tiny hedgehog out on a cold December night, and rescued it and took it to the local wildlife rescue. I was beside myself with joy when they called the next spring to tell me it had survived and was ready to come home! (But very sad that we had moved in the interim and so I didn't get to be the one to settle it back in - they like them to go back to their familiar neighborhood or I would have moved the hedgehog with me 😊)

TargusEasting · 30/04/2022 07:14

I bought a hedgehog house and trained my hedgehog very well.

Nowadays, when he comes home from an afternoon paragliding he lifts the corner up and retrieves my spare key from underneath. If I am not home, he will peel the potatoes and carrots, feed the cats and take the dog out for a walk. Sometimes, he will have bunged the veg in the slow cooker before leaving. In the evenings we may play Carcasonne or whist. That's about as far as I have got training mine.

CormoranStrike · 30/04/2022 08:15

mineofuselessinformation · 12/11/2021 21:12

Hmm, @StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes, I'm not even sure they know the house is there. That's why I've been moving the food bowl more in that direction.
I'd be gutted if I knew they knew it was there but rejected it!
For info, the hedgehogs in my last garden lived under the DC's playhouse which was no longer in use. I left it up as I knew the hedgehogs lived under it, even though it hadn't been used in several years (and I told the new owners about it).

Mine is really good at juggling, but not when we do it with balloons!

joangray38 · 02/05/2022 21:07

I have several feeding stations and three houses. During mating the males can leave for a few days and have all of them have several beds on their route so they don’t get caught out without somewhere to sleep during the day.

Annabelle69 · 02/05/2022 21:39

@joangray38 are we in mating season now? Ive had a Hog in both of my hog nesting boxes (Riverside Woodcraft Gold) for quite some time, but this morning I noticed no cat food taken from their feeding station. I wouldn't ever lift the nest box lids unless I think they're vacant, which they both are today 🤔

Should I take this opportunity to clean the nest boxes and replace old nesting material with a bitof Finacard (shredded cardboard) to start them off again, or leave old nests as they are?

joangray38 · 02/05/2022 22:14

Yes if the box is empty give it a clean if you look for little silver hedgehog on twitter or Google she has a blog post on how to clean their houses. Breeding season has started so even if they aren’t around leave lots of food and water out as they are struggling at the moment . I follow a few rescues on twitter and they already are getting starving hedgies in.

Annabelle69 · 02/05/2022 22:19

@joangray38 Thank you, I'll look up the info on cleaning.

I leave cat biscuits and water out all year round for anyone that needs it. Wet cat food when I know they're definitely there.

Hopefully they'll be back soon and I'll get another Mum and hoglets nesting under my Willow tree like last year 🙂

vipersnest1 · 03/05/2022 07:11

Mum and little one. 😍😍😍

vipersnest1 · 03/05/2022 07:12

If I attach the right picture...

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