Hedgehog in shed

[Matt71]

I was out putting the washing out this morning when I heard a snuffling sound from the shed, and there was our little Hedgehog Mr Snuffles (the Grandson named him). We have made a little box for him which we have filled with hay, we leave some cat food and water for him, one thing I want to know is that he was awake this morning when surely he should have been asleep, is this normal behaviour for Hedgehogs to sometimes wonder around a shed, I did put some food down which has since been eaten and the Hedgehog as gone back to bed.

[stef]

Was it just because you disturbed him? Or has he started getting up in the daytime? If it’s the latter find your nearest carer and get some advice as he may need checking over

[Wavey2davey]

Hi all, I was tidying up other day with garage open, when I went to lock up a fairly large hedgehog was in middle of garage (about half size of rugby ball).
I went into house to get a soft brush to shoo him out but by time I got back he had moved to back of garage, I couldnt see him but heard him scrambling about.
The past couple of nights I have put some dog food and water out which has been eaten over night, It is a brick built garage to there is no way out other than garage door and i need to lock up at night because of all the tools.
Should i put a shoe box and straw out to lure him out?
As I am away a lot I dont just want to lock him in with no food.
Any ideas on best way to lure him out?
I say him, may be a she.
Thanks. Graeme

[Nic]

Hi Graeme

Sounds like you have a bit of a dilemma there, if you are going to be away and are not sure whether the hedgehog is hibernating in the garage. (They do sometimes wake up for short periods during hibernation). Hedgehogs are not best known for being easy to ‘lure out’. They pretty much have minds of their own. Is there anyone you could ask to keep putting the food out for it? I am assuming that it isn’t the sort of door you could make a hog sized small hole in?

Alternatively, maybe you could try to find it and relocate it. Do you have a shed which it could have access to? If you were going to try relocation you would need to have somewhere ready to put the hog in, for instance a wooden hedgehog box – a shoe box would be much too small. Also, a hog needs to weigh at least 450g to have a good chance of surviving hibernation. If it weighs less than that, you could try to contact a local carer (numbers normally available from BHPS – 01584 890801 although I don’t know how well that works during holiday times) it might be worth seeking their advice anyway – they would be aware of local weather conditions, etc.

If you try to relocate it, put on some gardening gloves or the like and carefully lift the hedgehog up and gently place it in the new place and preferably cover it with lots of leaves or similar, and leave lots more nearby – not sure the hog would take kindly to being shooed out with a brush! Keep providing it with food and water because, even if it is hibernating it may have been disturbed in the moving process and have ‘woken up’.

I would not normally recommend disturbing a sleeping or hibernating hedgehog at all, but, like you, wouldn’t want it to be shut in a garage with no food and water and no way out.

Good luck. I hope you manage to find a solution and the hedgehog safely survives the rest of the winter.

[Author]

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