Hedgehogs

[Glittermoonlight]

I can’t believe how ridiculously happy I am to have a couple of hedgehogs in my garden finally. I’ve always loved them, but it’s only the last few days I’ve seen them in my garden! The last couple of days I’ve been leaving cat food out for them, but wasn’t entirely sure if the hedgehogs ate the food, or a neighbours cat. But yesterday & today we saw them. Photo attached, not a great one because I took it from upstairs, didn’t want to scare them off! I even bought actual hedgehog food today😂

Oh how wonderful. Thanks for posting this. Beautiful hogs.

Lovely image. Enjoy!

They’re a lovely couple. Are you going to set up a winter nest for them? They will be feeding a lot to get ready to hibernate.

Yes- I’ve actually ordered the same hedgehog house from Autumn watch, ridiculously invested in them! I’m going to set it up at the end of the garden between the shed & fence because it’s nice & sheltered there. I’m just hoping they don’t get scared off, I’m having a new fence & patio this week. Terrible timing!!
Do you think they might be an actual couple😍?

They might be a couple. Might have baby hogs in early summer.

Congratulations! It's a lovely feeling isn't it? I read that hedgehog food is a bit of a gimmick and probably not nutritionally balanced in the long term. I used up what I had and then went back to (non-fish flavoured) cat food and water.

Haven't seen ours for a few years though. I used to love the noises they made.

Yay, so exciting! I feed mine each evening. We had 3 at one point, but only one now.
I was hoping for hoglets, but was not blessed this year.

I have a trailcam that is set up at the feeding station (ok, 2 bowls). I observe my hog studiously ignore all the slugs also captured on camera, but he will eat the odd worm, as well as his chicken cat biscuits.

Can you install a hole in the bottom of the fence?

Amazing! I’d love a garden hedgehog 🦔

@TheSpottedZebra yes, we’ve been thinking of how to create pathways for them.
We’ve actually got a nest of Mum & 3 babies, plus another very big one. We think where several of our neighbours have chopped down their big hedges this year, they’ve moved into our garden! Was worried with all the noise from the patio work, but they still came by to eat around midnight last night. We’ve totally fallen in love with them!😂

5 HEDGEHOGS

You lucky thing! How lovely that you're their safe haven!
I only just clocked that this thread is from a few days ago... So did they nest in the new box already, or elsewhere?

Mine is really, really punctual. He comes by about 3hrs after it gets dark. So I have to keep on top of that for feeding time, otherwise the cats and fox will eat his tea. I've pondered making a feeding box to prevent the larger animals from doing so, but I, er, haven't actually done it.

@TheSpottedZebra we unfortunately found a nest right by the house, big shrub removed, I would never have disturbed the shrub if I’d realised before hand. So we relocated them into the new box, put it in a lovely spot under our big hedge at the end of the garden & hoping they don’t mind their new home. The babies were quite big, not small. So must have been late in the season babies.
We actually don’t get foxes in our back garden, cat is indoor. They were very punctual, we were so worried yesterday because they hadn’t turned up but I looked out around midnight & we saw one eating thank goodness! We’re going to make our garden really hedgehog friendly- if they can just ignore the new patio being put in they’ll find it a really peaceful garden again!!

Lovely!

One bit of advice … best food you can feed them is chicken flavour dry kitten food - it usually has a high protein content (~30%) which is often much higher than hedgehog food (which is often packed with a lot of cereal).

Own brand Tesco or Sainsburys kitten food is good (kitten as the kibble is smaller and less likely to get stuck in their teeth)

🦔

@TheSpottedZebra - yes- we’re going to have a feeding box set up once the work is completed. I know they like to eat lots at this time of year.

Good idea @NewNameNumber43 - I’ve been alternating chicken cat food with the hedgehog food, but will buy dry kitten food when I’m next in Tesco!

Ours only eat the supermarket own brand chicken flavour biscuits. The fancier brand put funny green vegetable biscuits in. The hogs carefully pick out the brown meaty bits and leave the suspicious multicolour ones.

We've bought a cat feeder robot with night vision camera to watch them and make sure they're fed when we're away. We're suckers!

@StamppotAndGravy 😂

If you're on Facebook the "hedgehogs!" Group is very informative

I'm in Australia and have hedgehog envy. 🦔
The echidna is unbearably cute but very cautious with humans unlike the northern hemisphere hogs.

We have hedgehogs in our garden at come down at night to polish off any droppedmor remaining cat food and have a long gulpy drink from the water stations we leave out.

Hearing a hedgehog munching on cat food is hilarious.

Update!! So I’m not sure how many hedgehogs we still have in the garden, but at least 2 of them are still eating the food every evening, one really huge one! they’re loving the kitten food!! 😂despite all the drilling & work going on in our garden. So that’s a relief. Been leaving lots of water too.
I can’t check the hedgehog house obviously so I do hope the Mum & babies are still there, although from what I’ve read they look like the age that Mum decides they should be independent😔
I’ve now bought a 2nd house all ready for when the work is completed. Also a garden wildlife camera to put up when it’s finished so we can monitor who’s in our garden.