Hedgehog puzzle

[liz07]

We are hedgehog newbies. We have been feeding a visiting hedgehog for a little while now. Last night to our delight she turned up with two hoglets. They all fed on wet and dry cat food and then mummy followed her usual routine, toddling off to the bottom of the garden, leaving hoglets near the food. Then to our amazement another adult sprinted down the garden to the female, lots of grunting ensued. Is this a dispute of some kind or are they mating? Up until now we have only seen our female in the garden.

[Williamc]

You have an enthusiastic male chasing your new mum. It’s quite possibly the father of the kids she has already since they don’t do “relationships” and the same two can go through the whole courtship thing several times over (smutty little beasties). Just to add to the smuttiness of hedgehogs, it’s quite possible for a litter of hoglets to have more than one father as well.

I’ve tried to teach them a little more decorum in their naughty habits but they just won’t listen. I won’t go into what happens when the kids have grown up……

[liz07]

Thanks for your reply, that’s fascinating. Looks like we are in a hedgehog version of Love Island, but this one is actually worth watching. Picking your brains again, why do you think we are seeing only two hoglets with mum, I believe normally they have up to six.

[Williamc]

Hoglets unfortunately have quite a high mortality rate and it’s rare for the whole brood to get as far as running around. There isn’t much we can do about that apart from leaving them undisturbed and ensuring food and water is easily available for Mum. Having two running around is a success story hog-wise!

[liz07]

We are lucky to have the two then. Thanks for all your help.

[DwarfHog]

I’m so jealous! We have been away for a week and I was hoping for babies – Hog babies that is not human ones! – when we got back but nothing yet!! We are still feeding several visitors – I haven’t managed to identify them separately yet – we are new to this hedgehog game – but they are of different sizes and I think I have at least one female – or one female who visits more than once! One/some of my hogs are huge – they can barely squeeze through the hole in my feeding station – others are significantly smaller overall – not just thinner. Anyway, I live in hope!

[liz07]

Hope you have your hoglets visiting soon!. It sounds like you have quite a crowd there!. Our two babies have really grown now and it’s getting hard to tell them apart from mum. We also have what we think is a visiting male too (possibly their father), just to get things even more confusing!. We are expecting the babies to disappear soon as they have been with mum a couple of weeks now and from what we have read they will go their separate ways. We are busy making a house now for hibernation in the hope that one will choose our garden. Good luck with your little family, keep me posted.

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