hedgehog house
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Hi Hedgie Lover, If you got this from a hog hospital I guess it’s OK! I suppose you have an internal tunnel as opposed to an external one, so loosing some space inside. If it really bothers you, you could take out the wooden divider and put an external tunnel on. I think I prefer the outside tunnel as it would be less draughty. Personally, I would put some sort of fastener on the lid. Having seen what the cats get up to I would be worried something larger may get access. The cats have shifted all the leaves that were covering the tarp I draped over the top of mine. I suppose it depends on how heavy the lid is, some are made very heavy. Best wishes.
Hi- Personally i wouldn’t put anything spikey outside. This could also hurt hedgehog feet and cause infection.
Hi Hedgie Lover
I just checked my box – it’s 11″ x 13″ x 7″ for the actual chamber. To be honest, I’ve always thought it was small, especially in depth, for a hibernation nest to be built in it.
I did have a nest in there one winter. Lovely nest but built by a hoglet so not a large hog and the hog didn’t hibernate just used the nest on and off for overday stays.
That box in the image looks as if it has a very wide ‘corridor’, which seems a bit of a waste of the space, but having a corridor of some sort, should help to shelter it from the wind a bit. Personally I prefer boxes which have the entrance (using that box and the placement of the corridor as an example) on the left hand side (but fairly near to the front), rather than on the front. So that the hog has to go in and turn immediately left, go along the corridor and turn right to enter the chamber. That arrangement is also slightly better at deterring cats, if it was being used as a feeding box.
What I’ll do is – I’ll put a brick on the top of it – and then put brash (as in sticks and leaves on top) And just put a bit of straw in the chamber and leave a bundle outside (I have plenty of leaves scattered in the side garden, so not gonna clear them away), so there’s plenty of stuff around if Sweetpea decides she fancies staying there for a night or two.
Maybe it’s good to have the homes a bit different from each other, as I wonder if Hedgehogs are like us, and like to chose for themselves which one they like?
For me, it’s important that I hide it (apart from entrance) with brash, as I don’t want the school kids coming in and looking at what might be inside the cute little house.
For my feeding station, I’ve made a tunnel out of bricks, so they hogs have to turn left and then right to get in there. It still didn’t deter the cats though – so I had to make the hole a bit smaller – which has done the trick. My hole is 4inch rather than the recommended 5inch.
problem is, sometimes new hedgehogs that arrive, it takes them a while to work out how to get in – and there was one very small hedgehog (possibly a hoglet at that time) tried to get through the plastic as it was sniffing the bowl of dog meat, eventually it gave up and ran away – I felt terrible. I didn’t see that hoglet again, but a few weeks later the autumn juveniles turned up – so this hoglet could well have been Calvin or Sweetpea perhaps. I’d like to think so, but probably not.
Sorry, they have to turn a left, when they enter the tunnel and another left to enter the feeding station, not left and than right – but it’s done the trick.
Hi Hedgie Lover
Yes, you’re right some hogs may have different preferences and also it dpends what the box is being used for. For instance, I think my box would be fine for a summer nest box. But bearing in mind that a typical wild hibernaculum can be 50cm in diameter (nearly 20″) my box does seem small for hibernating in.
my home at present is 50cm by 30cm, theres a 13cm tunnel in the middle, so there’s a bit of space at each side of it
Which is good, because if there are hoglets at some point, they could get some shelter from the wind, as the middle part might be too drafty as it’s got no bevel/divider.
Hi, so in other words Nic, you are saying the hog needs more space for hibernation because it knows how much packing (leaves, hay and such) it needs to keep itself insulated from bad weather to survive…? I must find the measurements of ours, which we bought off the internet and put together. We have noticed the juvenile, Heidi, has started to walk about, come to the feeding station, walk round a bit, then leave having not been in to eat anything. We will have to keep watch on her. Best wishes.
Hi Annker
No I’m just saying that in the wild hibernacula can measure 50cm. in diameter, so I thought my box seemed small for hibernating. But I have no idea whether hogs do use boxes that small. I imagine they may, judging from how many people have hogs hibernating in their boxes. But maybe they have larger boxes. The dimensions of the one Hedgehog Street show how to build are larger than my box. i.e 30cm x 40cm x 30cm high. Roughly a bit less than 12 x 16 x 12 inches. It is the height of mine which I particularly thought seemed low for hibernating – only 7″. If I was having one built, hoping for it to be used for hibernation I would get it made higher. i.e. 12″ high (as per the Hedgehog Street box) sounds better to me for hibernating.
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