To tell you a bit about Hedgehogs?

[Halstead]

There was a thread very recently, asking for ‘controversial opinions’. It got zapped really quickly.

One posters completely nonsense controversial opinion was that ‘Hedgehogs are flea ridden vermin’

I rescue Hedgehogs. I therefore think I’m being completely reasonable in stating Hedgehogs normally only have fleas when they are suffering from a wider illness. Of the ones we rescue each year, perhaps 1 in 5 have fleas (easily treated but NEVER with cat/dog flea treatment as the active ingredient is lethal to hedgehogs).

I also think I’m not being unreasonable when I tell you Hedgehog fleas are host specific. They aren’t the same type of fleas that invade cats and dogs, and they don’t bite humans, so you don’t need to worry about Hedgehog fleas invading your house and living in your carpets should you come across these critters in your back garden.

Hedgehogs really are in serious trouble at the moment. If they continue to decline at current rates, it’s predicted they’ll be extinct in the UK by 2025.

The current weather really isn’t helping. The hard ground means their main food source (beetles, caterpillars) are very hard to come by. Contrary to popular opinion, Hedgehogs shouldn’t (and don’t generally) eat slugs. If they do, it usually means they’re starving. Slugs often given them illnesses like lung worm and fluke which can be fatal to hogs. It really isn’t a pleasant death, either.

So… AIBU to tell you about about Hogs?... and ask you to pop out water and… if you can… something like kitten biscuit (high protein, low cereal, no milk variety) for our spiney friends? They would very much appreciate it.

Leave wild areas and log/leaf piles in your garden to provide habitat for beetles which are what hedgehogs need most of in their diet. So many garden now manicured to look spotless but are actually barren of life.

Also make hedgehog highways. Holes in fences so hedgehogs can access your gardens..no point giving them food and water if the can't get in. If you have steps, some bricks along the edge will help them scramble up.

🦔👍🏻

I was going to ask about badgers, Halstead. We are on a badger path and I have never seen a hedgehog in our area because of that.

Is it true that the badger just unrolls the hedgehog and eats it from the tummy and leaves a shell of spines?

I think I read that in an Enid Blyton book a million years ago - but she was right about sexing house sparrows (boys have a bib) so I always believed it.

Gruesome end.

Also, "the travels of Oggy" was a good book when I was about 8. About a hedgehog who lived in, I think, Hampstead Heath.

I'm off to eBay to find it.

I haven't seen any around this year sadly. Last year we would see them running across the front on the houses under the cars and in our back yard. We don't even have any grass so I was surprised.
I do put out food for them but having 2 cats one of whom yowls to go outdoors every night, I'm sure it's him eating the food before the hogs get to it..ill have to do better and find a cat proof way to feed them

Will do!

@Discombobulatedfrenzy have a look at homemade feeding stations for hedgehogs, very easy to make out of a medium sized plastic storage box.

@TheUsualChaos thank you I'll Google it now. We have plenty of spare storage boxes too

I saw some wood ones in home bargains for ten pounds but looked like they would rot fairly quickly, plastic is probably better in these circumstances

Got a probable family of them under a stick pile. I say probable because we found two of them had got married and were humping by the summerhouse. There also seems to be another one on the other side of the garden in a leaf pile 3 feet away from the expensive and empty hedgehog house. Water is always out and we have a "hedgehog highway" due to old fences with gaps in.

Shame about not eating slugs but I'm the same to be honest.

@TwoMonthsOff yes they aren't great for putting food in as just get damp and messy. Using a plastic box is so easy and keeps the food dry 👍

@Mysterian
apparently their ‘lovemaking’ is incredibly noisy 😭

@TheUsualChaos
indeed, like the ‘cute’ little bird feeders in the shape of a house that get covered in poo and go mouldy in about a week (lesson learned) !

Here's a link for DIY feeding station. You can place it out in the open on patio or something or tuck in under a shrub, doesn't really matter. Nice to see them tucking in though

DIY feeding station for hedgehogs

littlesilverhedgehog.com/2016/06/20/hedgehog-feeding-station/

l have had hedgehogs in my garden for years now, about a month ago l had two doing what looked like a circular dance for ages, not sure if mating ritue, l leave catfood and water out for them.

Well done for this thread, I absolutely adore hogs and the more that people are aware the better.

I've got a feeding station and hog house in my garden, I don't tend to get as many visitors these days but a few years ago there was a huge chap turning up at my back door at 8pm on the dot each night, he'd be seriously huffy if the food wasn't down and ready for him.

I've got 4 in my garden, 1 big, 2 medium and a tiddler who was conceived behind the water butt! The tiddler has a white stripe up his back. I was sceptical whether the foxes were eating the food at first but the poo says not and I see hogs every night now eating. Well I hear then first as they crunch really loudly!

@Bert2e
I am still in the garden and two are eating as we speak, they are awfully noisy for such little critters aren’t they ? trampling through the undergrowth and snuffling. Could be quite scary if you didn’t know what it was

I have 2 hedgehogs that come to my garden every night. I leave low bowls of water and kitten kibble. They are awesome-one is HUGE the other smaller and they have pushed each other off the food before.

My cats love them as well...petrified of them but will sit by them no problems. I'm amazed at how fast they run/walk as well.

Hedgehogs are awesome!

I love this thread. As a family we have three hedgehog houses, and numerous water bowls and feed stations. It is so incredibly satisfying to see the hedgehog crumb that’s left every morning. Thanks to Wildthings Keyworth (fb) we have been able to give 360 degree access to our garden with holes drilled in our fences. If you’re in the South Nottinghamshire area (or not) and are interested in helping our endangered hogs there is some solid information on there.

@loveislouderthanwar
haha yes cats are smart and know they are totally outclassed, mine just sits and stares at them, probably seething with frustration

@Magnolia24
it is a smashing thread, such kind people ❤️

If they continue to decline at current rates, it’s predicted they’ll be extinct in the UK by 2025.
Wow, really??? I had no idea and that's only 3 years away 😭
I really love hedgehogs. We had one visit during the hot weather so we put water and cat biscuits out for it. We had to pick it up and move it away from our patio though as we have a Labrador paying too much attention to it. They're amazing animals. Thanks for this thread 🦔

I've got a fence which is overgrown with ivy to the point that it's leaning over but I can't do anything with it because there's a hedgehog living there, I've been here 25yrs and have always seen hedgehogs coming and going, I have a hedgehog highway (holes cut in the fences) and in 2020 we had 4 baby hedgehogs, we saw the mum during daylight hours and rang the hedgehog sanctuary and sent them a photo and a video and they said she looked pregnant, the excitement nearly finished me off!
We had a couple of weeks of sitting in the garden watching baby hedgehogs who clearly didnt realise they were supposed nocturnal, I'd be sitting in a garden chair and have to lift my leg up to let one of the babies walk past.
We now leave dried chicken flavour cat biscuits and water out.
Love them❤️

Your are definitely nbu - I absolutely adore hogs (& all wildlife) up until last year I had loads in my garden every night, they’d all queue for the water & food, spend ages eating (loudly) lovely big healthy ones & baby ones too…

this year not seen 1, it makes me so sad, I live on a quiet estate on a cul de sac & it’s perfect but never see them.