First time hoglet sighting
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Gangster kitty prowls round the garden very frustrated it can’t get into the feeding station. It’s sat on top of the station before and shoots the odd paw in to try and hook the food out. Last night when it had turned its back to the feeding station the big guy came into the garden and went straight in and happily munched undisturbed.
Will just have to wait and see what happens with her. I’m really hoping she’s eaten too much the night before, or has self confined ready to give birth. the feeding station is a couple of metres away from the hoggie house.
I’m just hoping the cat gets bored soon it knows it can’t get at the food now, but it has smelt the hoggies droppings in the garden so I don’t know if that is making it curious enough to come back over and over, or if it thinks it’s going to get lucky with the food.
Lord who needs East Enders with action like this!Sounds like you’ve got a right one there! Although you are lucky it doesn’t get into the feed box. That’s usually the problem. I had a new box made last year with double baffles so that the cat had to bend left right left in a very short space and one still got in. I put a brick in to reduce the height and it still got in. In the end I had a whole row of bricks along the ‘corridors’ and it was finally defeated. The clever hog managed to get in!
Totally agree – when there are hogs around, who needs TV!
I’ve got a front and rear exit in case a quick escape is needed, and I’ve got bricks to stop the gangster or any of its associates lying down to try and get in at either entry. Speaking to a neighbour today, she’s not happy with this latest addition to the feline network as it’s also an assassin of Robins. In particular one that lived in her bird house. I’m hoping it’s just young and grows out of its nonsense.
In actual heggie news, the big guy was snuffling around last night, ate plenty but stayed close to the hog house. No sign of our ‘girl’ and the entrance to the house is undisturbed now 2 nights in a row. All is quiet inside though.
So still none the wiser, but now have 1 motion activated cameras trained on the house and one on the feeding station. Just hoping she’s ok.
It’s agonising!
Must make it even harder to resist investigating when the hog might be so close! One of my regular visitors has been missing for a week now – I hope she’s occupied with hoglets. You get, a little bit, used to just not knowing, after a bit. There always remains an element of worry, though, I find.
Hope gangster kitty grows up to become more of a lap cat! For the sake of all the wildlife around, it seems!
So looking back on my first post on this forum, and what I thought was the hoglet, has become a mum. On Saturday night the cameras picked up the first images of a little one.
Mum never really got that big, so I don’t know if there is more than this one, but we’ve only seen one so far.
My concern is that there might be another one not doing well in the house/nest, but I haven’t attempted to look.
I have bought the BHPS book on hedgehog care and rehabilitation, and now that I’m back home after our trip down south, I’ll be calling the BHPS for advice, although as ever, anything you guys can tell me will be greatfully received knowledge.
I have got spikes hedgehog food down, but as baby can’t be more than 2.5 weeks old, I didn’t know if it would be on solids yet or still to be weaned. Will start reading!
I can’t believe we have mum, dad and now baby!
Over the moon 😃When I have really small hoglets about I tend to use more of the semi-moist Spikes on the assumption the tiny ones will find it easier to eat than the dry crunchy variety. That’s just a guess on my part and they may be happily troughing on the crunchy anyway but one never knows with these beasties.
Thanks Will, I’ve only got dry ones at the moment, because since we’ve had rain, the wet cat food is being ignored, unless they are as fussy as my cat used to be! It would be about right if I have high maintenance hoggies!
Will pop out later and get some wet, just to be safe 😃
The baby didn’t put in an appearance last night, and I’m still concerned I’ve only seen the one.
I’m calling the BHPS this morning though, and will start reading my care book too!Hi
Babies at 2.5wks old will not be eating solid food yet. They should still be with mum.
You say you’ve seen the baby – how? Did it come out of the nest?
Fly strike on babies is common if they come out of the nest
Have you seen the mum at all in 2.5wks? If she’s not come out for food then you have a problem
Please contact the BHPS and get hold of your nearest carer for immediate advice
It’s too difficult on this forum to give good advice as we only ever have half a storyYes mum has been out for food, the baby has only been out briefly twice. That I could see from the camera. May be slightly older than 2.5 wks, as have no camera in the house only outside. Will call on my work break.
I’ve been in touch with BHPS and all signs point to everything being ok.
I’ve also now got lots of phone numbers for local careers, and I’ve asked for details on courses so that I can be more useful myself in future 😊Hi Deeb74,
Just catching up with your posts and I assume you have some good advise from BHPS that has helped.
Its worth mentioning that hoglets will feed off mum for between 4 and 6 weeks typically, so wont be on solid food if only about 2.5 weeks – but age is difficult to determine I know from sight alone.
It sounds more like one of her curious babies has followed her out of the nest. Maybe she only has one – but that would be unusual, more likely 3 or 4 to a litter, with the loss of one or two fairly common early on.
My advise would be to leave mum and babies well alone for a couple more weeks – the risk of disturbing them could have consequences if they are still relying on her, and you don’t want to take that responsibility on, I can tell you. She will reappear for food and bring her babies once they are more confident and shortly after that she will leave them to fend for themselves. tough in hoglet World I know!
your supplies will undoubtedly be welcome to her and family – but she will likely abandon her young if you disturb her.
Hog males don’t hang around to raise young, so he’s unlikely to be the father necessarily – any male hanging around will probably be hoping for some romance if there is a female around.
Its tough leaving things be when you are unsure and wanting to do the right thing to help – but unless you see signs of distress its often better to leave alone.Oh Jan, and Steph, thank you, and thank you to everyone on this site. I just want to do the right thing by them all. I’m so grateful to everyone here for their advice and the lady I spoke to today at the BHPS was wonderful.
I have no intention of disturbing them, any excuse not to weed is gratefully received 😂 I’m hoping to go on a course next month, meantime I have Kay Bulliver’s book to read, and I am looking into hedgie house cams for next year! Or maybe even in time for hibernation if the house repairs slow down to allow it!
OH doesn’t want any more actual pets, and these could never be, as they are wild, and I firmly believe should remain so. We have two houses now though, plus the feeding station, and I’m more than happy to build them a whole village and never see them in person, if they want to keep coming 🦔🐾😊
How lovely. Hopefully they do show themselves as it’s lovely to get to know them and watch them year by year.
Well done, you deserve a pat on the backyou are very welcome Deeb74 – its great having more enthusiastic people to support these little critters and welcome to the addictive World of hogs – sounds like they have you captivated already with talk of cameras and houses! Kay’s book is very useful and if you get links in with a local rescue person it can be very rewarding to make use of and increase your skill set at a pace – has its ups and downs on the emotional side as you might expect though.
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