To ask you to please help hedgehogs and other wildlife prepare for winter

[Pricklesinperil]

It is literally a lifeline for them as the weather gets warmer.

if you’d like to know about other ways to help, please go to Help hedgehogs

thank you

Note from MNHQ - please do read the Op's latest update (October 2022) before responding.

@Lonelycrab glad your hedgehog is back again. It looks a mite startled in that one!

did you create that area your hedgehog is in? Perhaps your hedgehog is scoping it out as a potential hibernation spot?

Morning Prickles yes s/he’s been appearing like clockwork last 3 nights, bang on 930. I understand they’re quite predictable like that and often walk the same patch each night.

Im actually able to get quite close and it doesn’t seem to startle. I’m doing a bit of soft speaking, trying to make it feel I’m not a threat (neighbors must think I’m mad lol) and the hog seems to get it! So I was within a foot or so will the plate of food I put down was heartily scoffed. That particular pic the hog was behind my wheelbarrow so I got a sneaky pic. S/he was scuttling around my feet at one point.

My hedge is also a raggedy mess, intentionally. I’ve put a lot of dead wood in there sort of forming a wood pile but tbh there are many really good spots around where I’m living, lots of bramble patches and piles of dead wood.

@Pricklesinperil couple more pics. The brown lid with the food is a Hagen das ice cream lid, so you can see it’s a fairly small or young hog I guess.

Oh Wow!! These pictures are awesome @Lonelycrab !!! I was in our local farm feeds shop getting more hedgehog food yesterday and saw the tins of 'meaty hedgehog food' so bought one (£1.20!!!) for a treat for mine - faddy little madam didn't touch it but wolfed down all the crunchy food in the other bowl 🤣🤣. She seems to be leaving lots of poo on the patio and spending a lot of time snuffling in the bushes so I'm wondering if shes about to give birth or has done? Its probably wishful thinking but I've not heard any sex sounds for a few weeks and have only seen the bigger hog (I'm assuming the male) once.

Your garden sounds very hedgehog friendly @Lonelycrab ! No wonder you have attracted hedgehogs! Those pictures are just lovely!

if anyone reading wants to know more about making their garden hedgehog friendly, please watch this video from Hedgehog Street

Bumping early. Please leave out water for wildlife

@blobby10 we’re all with you hoping for hoglets!

I don’t know how many I have visiting now, but they’re well fed and watered. ❤️

Lovely pics @Lonelycrab

I had three hogs in my garden tonight!! Two of them wandered off under a bush, They were there for about 40 minutes and seemed to be getting along very nicely by the sounds they were making (although one of them did come back onto the lawn for a drink miday through!). The other one was quite happy because there was no competition for the food.

Not sure if it's too late in the year for mating? I hope if she dooes have hoglets they can build up enough weight for the winter

Thanks for the compliments everyone!

Evening bump, just going out to fill my water stations.

@FlappyFish that is a very sweet photo! Thank you for sharing it and thank you for feeding and watering the hedgehogs that visit you. I’d love to know how many

And also by having hedges rather than fences.

@HopeSpringsInfernal three hedgehogs! 🦔 🦔 🦔 brilliant!

Re: your mating question - Hedgehog Street says this;

September - Some mature females may have mated for a second time and thus repeating the events of the last couple of months, however, with their natural diet becoming scarcer in the autumn, late litters will struggle to gain the fat reserves necessary for hibernation and need our help. Hedgehog Lifecycle

Spot on @BlackbirdsSinging. The Hedgehog Street campaign is for everyone to create hedgehog highways so hedgehogs can visit gardens for food and water. So everyone, if you’re reading this and have fences, please create a hedgehog highway! Here’s a video and link for more info.

if you have any questions, please post here or contact Hedgehog Street at [email protected]

Help hedgehogs in your neighbourhood

Morning bump

spotted our little visitor again last night, gave ddog the fright of his life as he was right by the back door! We’re moving soon and was wondering if it would be weird to leave a note for the new owners! Feel a bit sad at the thought of my little chap turning up and not finding any water or food when we go ☹️

@WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe not weird at all, it’s a fantastic idea. Hedgehog Street have some ready made resources for you to print out. Also, could you chat to your neighbours about the hedgehog s and see if they can also start leaving out water for them? Again, hedgehog Street is your friend here with lots of resources

Hedgehog Street

@Wheelyweddingwipedout I’ll have a look at the resources and leave some for the new owners. I’ll leave the dish we use as well to make it easy for them. I’ve had a look and think I’ve found the fence that he must be coming through and it backs onto a house in the next street. I might drop a note through their door too.

Will also let them know he only likes wet dog food and did not care for the soaked kibble I put out last night as it was all I had left 🤣

We have 2 hedgehog houses; and usually we seem to have 2 hedgehogs coming to feed.

This year, although I put Tescos kitten food and water down every night, we have only seen one hedgehog once. The food is always gone in the morning, but that could be the local cats and magpies! However, we also feed birds with feeders and seed on the ground.

This morning, I found four fresh hedgehog droppings around the seed on the ground! Either it’s one very prolific hedgehog or we had several visitors last night!

Due to councils not emptying bins often, our town is awash with a rat problem, so leaving any kind of food out would be a nono as the hedgehogs wouldn't get a look in

Its a shame for hedgehogs

I’d be surprised if we had many rats, as we have 2 cats and we see quite a few neighbours cats in our garden! We do on occasion have a fox! We live right on the edge of our town and it’s countryside at the end of the road!

The hedgehogs have clearly encountered our cats, because even when the cats are around in the garden at dusk, the hedgehogs pay no attention to our cats!

You are amazing- what a kind person you are @WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe

@TheSummerPalace thank you for helping the hedgehogs with food and water. Look forward to hearing if you do have more than one visiting!

@Passedmybedtime could you leave out water for the hedgehogs? If you don’t have a hosepipe ban, just make sure your green is well watered in the evening because it encourages insects to surface and makes the earth soft for hedgehogs to be able to dig for insects,