Four hedgehogs
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Oh my goodness! We started out feeding one and now have four at one time! Two are using our hedgehog houses. We’ve seen four in the garden – two adults and two hoglets for the past three weeks.
Hi Monkeysonj, so you’re also getting lots of visitors too! I can’t believe the numbers coming to feed – they even came as early as 7pm last night which in itself is unusual and as I said in my post “Multiple sightings” they’re coming in all different shapes and sizes so it’s not one or two repeat visits. We have got new housing development here an a grand scale – is it simply that these hogs have been displaced or do they know something we don’t – possibly a harsh winter’s around the corner!?
It’s always nice to hear about increasing numbers of hogs – especially hoglets!
If you’ve got a new housing development nearby, Judith, it sounds quite likely that some of the hogs could have come from there – and, if that is the case, thank goodness they have found you!
Hi Judith and Nic,
Indeed, I do wonder if it’s house building that may be causing our little spikey friends to relocate to nice hedgehog friendly gardens! Since we had a housing development start in our village, the little lads and lasses have been piling in – we can’t provide enough food (!) – sometimes we fill the bowls twice a night, so I wonder if we have more than the four we see regularly? We love spotting them all, plus the newcomers – they are so funny!Judith, lucky you having multiple little friends, I can’t believe how fortunate you are to see yours at 7pm, mine have started arriving later now that the nights are darker, not sure why? Could be the rain too I guess? So, we’ve started staying up later for a glimpse.
However, since the hoglets arrived, our neighbours are getting super interested, to the point that they let us put a hedgehog house under one of their hedges and it’s already occupied by a huge hedgehog that we think is fattening up for hibernation ;0)
Have a great day both!
Hi Monkeysonj
Ah, so there’s building work near you too. That could partly explain it. Well done getting the neighbours involved as well. Really good news about a hog moving into the hog house already!
Keep up the good work!
We have been away but our neighbours have been standing in as hog parents! Not too much food being taken but it has been wet and dampish so hopefully they are finding their natural food. Looking at the camera images the hogs seem to be mostly juveniles – hopefully fattening up for the long sleep. Just lovely to see them still awake. I will look at the hog house tomorrow to see if there has been any change in the bedding!
Sounds like they may have gone to hibernate, nancaz2325. If so, hopefully they’ll be back in the Spring.
Hi DwarfHog and nancaz2325,
We’ve noticed a drop in the food being taken too – although on our night-cam footage, we don’t seem to see many adult hogs now, only juveniles…we’re thinking maybe they don’t eat as much, or that the adults are indeed away starting to hibernate. Having said that, we’ve been reviewing the footage and wonder if we have been getting 6+ coming to feed, as most of them are now juveniles – not an even split of adults and juveniles!Sure will miss them when they all head off for the Winter sleep ;0)
Hi nancaz2325
Are mealworms and seeds all you are offering the hedgehogs? If so, that is not sufficient nutrition for them. Mealworms, in particular, are not good for them. It would be best if you cut out the mealworms and seeds and offered them either hedgehog food or cat/dog food. It is especially important for them at this time of year, when they are preparing for hibernation to have really good nutritious food so that they can put on the right sort of condition to survive. Although, you may find that most of them have gone to hibernate already.
Hello all, surprisingly we are still getting multiple visits but as monkeysonj said most seem to be juveniles. Not only do they polish off all the food but seem to eat quite quickly (for them) and then run off. We are feeding them a mixture of hedgehog food, kitten biscuits, crushed skinned peanuts and sultans (just a few) which they seem to relish. I hope this is ok – we are assuming they would eat berries naturally anyway.
Hi Judith
Good to hear there are still hogs visiting. I still have a couple of hoglets here, although not sure after all the noise, smoke, objects falling all around – last night.
Re. the food. I would stick to the hog and cat food. Peanuts are one of those foods which are implicated in metabolic bone disease, even though to a much lesser extent than mealworms. It is of course worse if they are fed only one of those foods, but if you are feeding the other things they aren’t really necessary. Hogs are thought to occasionally eat fruits in the wild, but sultanas are stickier and not good for their tiny teeth. Hopefully the kitten biscuits will have helped to keep their teeth clean, but I would cut the sultanas out also. Unfortunately hogs seem to be quite keen on all sorts of things which aren’t good for them! – Where have I heard that before!
Hopefully, they won’t mind you cutting those out. If you find there is a problem, reduce them gradually. Good luck.
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