Attracting Hedgehogs

[JoanneF]

For the last few evenings we are very excited to have had a hedgehog visiting the garden. Timber is beyond excited but we aren't letting him play. Anyway, to encourage our new visitor to stay we have ordered a hedgehog hibernation box. Today before the rain I gathered up the fallen leaves and have put them in the utility room to dry completely, they will go in the box. It will be sited at the back of the garage where it is quiet and Mr F will block access for T but make sure the hog can come and go. I read to put a few leaves at the entry, if they get disturbed that's an indicator that the box is being used. Does anyone have any tips to encourage our new visitor to stay?

 

[excuseme]

Ooh how exciting.
You can get Hedgehog dried kibble, although, just how good it is for them I wouldn't know, hedgehogs are more likely to eat beetles, woodlice, worms, and other creepy crawlies. They certainly are not grain eaters. I think our garden hedgehogs used to like the tinned cat food and they loved dried meal worms, although there are reports that dried meal worms are not good for them! I certainly would not feed bread and milk.
We have had a couple of nests, one was in our greenhouse and another in an old rabbit hutch, (at ground level). Babies spines were very soft and pale coloured when they were new.

 

[merlina]

Lucky you! I used to overwinter underweight hoggies for a rescue. The deal is as already stated good quality meaty pet food (not fishy!) and/or special hoggy food. The one thing that everyone with a garden can do is provide exits from their own patch into neighbouring ones. Just a a small hole in the bottom of your fence and wooden gate. Or a brick from the bottom of a wall. If you can get your entire street to do it then you have a hedgehog theme park for them at night. If you are proving winter havens damp is the big problem. Plastic layer on top if outside and maybe off the ground? Hope you get a tenant. In spring the best you can do is leave alone but put water out everyday. They wake up dehydrated.

 

[JoanneF]

Thanks both. It's a special hedgehog house with a felt waterproof roof and I think it has little feet so it's off the ground. If not we can put it on something to raise it a couple of inches. I'm happy to put out food but my concern is attracting something else, and that the something else might scare off the hog. Any ideas?

 

[excuseme]

I have been looking at the ingredients of Hedgehog dried foods and most seem to be made with a lot of grain!
@merlina
Noticing your comment that they come out of hibernation as dehydrated, I would assume that kibbles at this time of year should not be a very good idea.

 

[excuseme]

Oh Jo, I think you and I crashed in mid air somewhere!!

We used to put a sheet of glass or something similar (maybe plastic) that was about 4" off the ground (bricks on edge or similar). The hedgehogs could get underneath to access the bowl of food and bowls did not fill up with water either. This prevented any roaming cats getting the food.

 

[Mad Murphy]

We have loads of hoggys in our park but sadly we cant make our garden accessible to hogs without making it accessible to the hoardes of neighbourhood cats who would use our garden as a huge litterbox.

 

[JoanneF]

We have loads of hoggys in our park but sadly we cant make our garden accessible to hogs without making it accessible to the hoardes of neighbourhood cats who would use our garden as a huge litterbox.

I wanted to sort of un-like that - not for the message but for the cat litterbox thing.

 

[merlina]

Yeah I don't ever feed the hoggy kibble but buy tinned- though they seem to prefer Chicken Whiskas to virtually everything. Oh and ripe fruit...they like the brown windfalls...they like the big fat slugs on the brown windfalls.... You can construct a hoggy feeding station with bricks and a u-shaped tunnel inside so foxes, cats etc are deterred- the same concept as an Egyptian tomb. A hole 13cm square will allow hoggy access through fences. Too small for cats. Oh and yes good advice about mealy worms- they will scoff them BUT shouldn't. They stop the hoggy metabolising essential other minerals. They're actually quite complex little creatures. Good luck with yours.

 

[JudyN]

We used to get hedgehogs, but haven't seen any since we had the garden fully fenced. OH has now cut a hole in the end fence, which backs onto a strip or rough ground, and we've caught a hedgehog on the other side on the wildlife camera, but still no sign of any in the garden. One neighbour has chickens and the other is quite particular about his fence, so we can't put more holes in them. Jasper is too much of a wuss to pose a threat to anything so well protected!

I helped out for a very short time at a hedgehog sanctuary. The first day I was shown into a room practically lined with hedgehog hutches. They were in such a terrible mess, with mounds of poo, and I assumed the owner had been really struggling with caring for them. So I cleaned them all out, replaced with fresh newspaper, and gave them clean food bowls. The very next day I came back to find the hutches just as messy as the previous day - they are ridiculously messy critters!

(That wasn't why I stopped, BTW - I was cycling there & back and it was all a bit much for my fibromyalgia.)

 

[JoanneF]

Thanks again. To be honest it's rats I am more concerned about than cats. I don't really mind them but would rather not attract them into the garden.