Hedgehogs

[HappyAsASandboy]

My DS is 9 years old and obsessed with hedgehogs.

I am considering getting him a hedgehog house with a camera inside for Christmas, but I'm concerned that all the hedgehogs will already be hibernating and it'll stand empty until next winter. I think that'd be a bit of an anticlimax!

Anyone know whether hedgehogs are all hibernated or whether a new hedgehog house might become occupied bat this time of year?

They are probably all hibernating imo. You could still get one though, the hedgehogs will arrive in the spring.

They should be hibernating by now, although some that are underweight might not be (although they may not survive either)
Like all wild animals they aren’t very cooperative so it could stay empty anyway

Ours have been about in the past week as some of the food has gone and we did catch one on the camera last week but probably best to wait until spring now. We have a house which hedgehogs did sleep in earlier in the year but no one is occupying it at the moment. We set up a camera pointing at house door and feeding bowl to get the best pictures and videos of them

That's a cool gift. They hibernate October to March so unlikely to gain an occupier this year, but getting the garden hedgehog ready, having an entrance route to garden, getting the right location (not North facing, etc etc) could be a project to get started.

What about - if you haven't already - getting him a membership of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society? It's £7.50pa and gets two newsletters a year.

www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk

The Wildlife Trusts also do adopt a hedgehog (I haven't clicked to see cost) and might do some kind of membership with magazines and stuff to keep him engaged until October time.

www.wildlifetrusts.org/what-do-if-you-find-wild-animal/help-hedgehog

If you Google there might be other supplemental ideas to go alongside.

If you didn't gift the house now, when would you? Or is it now or never?

Do you know whether you actually get hedgehogs in your garden? We actually see one about once every 8 years.

Thanks everyone, lots to think about!

We do get hedgehogs in our garden. Regularly see them pottering about if I get up in the middle of the night, and we've seen some up close too (one fell in a fence pole hole we'd dug the day before

I'll look into the memberships. Magazines and newsletters would go down well.

In the spring, get into the habit of putting cat crunchies along your fence lines - as hedgehogs patrol fences - and you'll get them coming out most evenings
it took a year but we had them happily eating with the cats by the back door which is amusing to watch