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Everyone has different ideas on releasing hedgehogs. You have to bear in mind they are wild animals and they suffer stress in captivity – no matter how long they have been in it or how big the cage is.
Do you know anyone else who can do a release so they don’t all go from your garden?
You need to start immediate releases so they can get breeding before the year gets much later and we end up with juveniles.
I would release one every day or 2 days – keep the others in outdoor hutches in the meantime. Don’t mass release or they will all leave.
My advise to all my ‘customers’ is to put them into a hog house/box where you plan to release them during the day of release. Keep them confined until the early evening then quietly remove the door so they can get out. Put food and water close by and leave them to it.
The normal pattern of behaviour most people report is that they come out, eat and go back and then come out again later and leave. Some stay a day or 2 and I had one that stayed 6 months but it’s then their choice.