Thanks so much for your replies. Much appreciated.
At my house you are right, William, the mice were taking the food in early autumn. They were incredibly efficient and would clear every crumb within an hour. They were not eating it, but taking it away to store. They must have a sizeable warehouse somewhere to cope with the amount they took! After more than two weeks of this, sadly, I stopped putting food out as I knew the hedgehog wasn’t get any of it anyway.
My mother lives a few miles away. Her hedgehog has been feeding every other night or so throughout the winter, but always left a bit of food behind. That is what has made us pretty sure that it has been the hedgehog as anything else would eat the lot. About a week ago, she noticed that every crumb was going every night… just as had happened with me, so we think it may be mice, as it was with me.
I have suggested that she go on putting food out until we can borrow a camera again to find out what is going on. Maybe the hedgehog is eating first and something else is polishing off the left overs. Fingers crossed. We hate to think of our hedgehogs being disappointed and going hungry!
