Who else is helping hedgehogs?

[Alicewond]

They may be declining in rural areas but growing in urban ones. I have at least 3, are you feeding or watering them. Do your hogs have names

Raptor, a determined hog can certainly climb steps! Our over-wintering baby (found full of worms fleas and ticks and treated by the vet) grew incredibly fast and climbed out of his pen and up a full flight of steep stairs when still quite small.

Lovely characters but they do stink.

Wouldn’t hesitate to foster again but I don’t put food out for them.

Me! We have one who comes to feed around 9 every night.

Oh, and forgot to answer re the naming of hogs.

Ours was called Kyrié which was a kind of overworked pun that probably only French-speaking Catholics would understand.

(Kyrié l'hérisson sounds like Kyrie eleison which is the "Lamb of God" part of the sung mass... agree it's a bit wanky but we got carried away and wanted to make the vet laugh)

The first time my dd saw a real live hedgehog she was about 15yo and was totally amazed. She said she thought they were mythical creatures like unicorns and haggis.

I’ve got a hedgehog-friendly strip in my garden and climbable fences but the bits at the bottom are concrete (on a hill so they retain soil) so no handy holes. I haven’t seen any hedgehogs yet but hope to one day.

He came earlier last night (so I could take a better photo!)

We have a family nesting in our garden - we discovered them when the mum pushed one of the babies out of the nest and into the garden . We managed to save the baby and he was taken to a wildlife shelter and released into the wild when he was older. Now we leave catfood out for them. Lovely wee things.

morality we're in NI! We feed them because the mum was struggling (hence why she pushed the baby out of the nest).

This is the hedgehog we overwintered because she was too small to survive hibernation (in conjunction with a local wildlife centre)

We realeased her about a month ago and she comes to our garden most nights.

Contrary to what a PP says, hedgehogs don’t imprint on humans, or get used to being provided food. You aren’t doing them any harm feeding them. Hence wildlife sanctuaries overwinter hundreds every year, then release them successfully.

It’s really easy to make a feeder which cats/dogs can’t access using an overturned plastic box with a smallish hole in one end and the food at the other.

Just don’t ever put milk or bread down for them. Cat or dog food (no fish... check the ingredients as chicken flavoured food often has it) and water in a low, flat bowl.

We have a hedgehog house, and tonight it looks like a hedgehog came out the house - it snuffled round the lawn, then made its way to a hole under the fence. It was quite small and light coloured!

I put some water and cat biscuits out for it.

We've got a hedgehog house in the bottom corner of our garden where one, or maybe 2, is living. We've got a camera in the garden that's set off by movement so we've got a good idea of what time he gets up and goes to bed. He's quite a big one.