Hedgehogs gone awol
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Hi wonder if you could help as we are a little bit concerned. We have had 3 different hedgehogs visiting our garden , they have eaten from the feeding station & also had several naps in the hedgehog house. We have not seen them for 2 weeks & leave food & water out every night which has gone untouched. We live in Yorkshire & the weather recently has been cold, my husband is convinced they have gone back into a semi hibernation because of the cold. Could this be right . Any advice would be grateful
Hi suerich17
Sorry to hear the hogs there have gone awol. There are all sorts of potential reasons why they may have gone missing. i.e. their route may be blocked (someone may have repaired fences, etc.), someone else may have started feeding, males may be visiting other parts of their ranges, etc. The first returners from hibernation are usually males.
It seems unlikely that they would go back into hibernation because of the cold when they had access to food. Hibernation is a complicated thing which is not fully understood, but it isn’t only to do with temperature. Some hogs decide not to hibernate and the cold doesn’t seem to bother than too much. But I suppose it is possible.
I would continue offering food and, especially, water and hopefully you will eventually get hog visitors again.
Good luck.
Thankyou for your reply. We will certainly keep putting the food & water out & keep our fingers crossed as I miss them. We are hoping that they will return as we have placed a camera in the hedgehog house & hope that come hibernation time one will take residence. 🦔
The same thing has happened to my Hogs, they have been visiting for years and this year not one has shown up. Nothing has changed here paths and holes are still here….
Hi Kazzi
Bearing in mind that hogs can travel up to 2 miles a night, it’s possible that it’s an access problem in someone else’s garden which could potentially be a throughroute to get to yours.
Just to bring you up to date, our hogs have returned & one actually slept in the hedgehog house all day. We have a camera in there & noticed that the hedgehog has about 5 ticks which are latched on. He/she eats & drinks well & seems healthy, but is this anything that needs attention?
Hi suerich17
Great news the hogs are back.
As long as there aren’t too many ticks, the hog should be ok. If they were quite big they will likely drop off soon. But the main problem is if they lay eggs in the hog house – which could lead to a lot more being picked up there later on. So if he is no longer sleeping in the hog house, I would be inclined to clean it out and use boiling water to make sure there aren’t any tick or other parasite eggs hiding in the joins. But make sure the hog has vacated i.e. not just gone out for the night. If you have a hog feeding box, you might want to clean that out, too.
Hi Nic could you also give me some more advice please. Is there anything I could buy to get rid of the fleas that are making the hog’s life very uncomfortable, without having to handle the hog as I am afraid that it would scare him/her & it would not come back. Viewing through the camera it is affecting its sleep as it is always scratching
Hi suerich17
It’s kind of similar for fleas, i.e. clean out the places they sleep with boiling water to kill any eggs. But treating the actual hog is best left to experts because some things are harmful to them. But hogs do tend to scratch quite a lot, so it depends how much it is scratching. Treating hogs isn’t my area of knowledge, but, if you are concerned, it may be a good idea to have a chat with one of your local hog carers/rehabilitators – you can describe it more accurately to them and take their advice. You can get details of your nearest hog carers from the BHPS on 01584 890801.
We experienced this some years ago thankfully they returned. We have them every year now. Just keep putting food and water as usual they will return. We feel the same it is lovely to have them visit.
Sadly our hedgehog has not visited the feeding station for 10 nights now. We are still putting out the correct food and water and just he/ she or more will eventually come back.
Earlier in March (16th) we had two hedgehogs in the garden and in April more than 60g of food in the feeding station was being eaten!! Where have they gone.Sorry to hear that, valg. But don’t give up – they might be back. It could be that when you first started feeding them, you were the only one in the area and there may be others now. Alternatively, if their route has been blocked somewhere, it sometimes takes them a while to work out another way through.
Fingers crossed that some hogs make their way back there.
Hogs gone awol ?
I normally have about 3 hog visitors each night with 3 webcams capturing movements. Have 2 feeding stations Spikes Bistro & Spikes Diner and 2 houses, regularly used for years with overnight 5* stays in ‘hog hotels’….alas, no sign for last 3 nights.
I know one is a male. I wondered if the others were female and in a nest elsewhere with hoglets would the female not visit nightly for food? and appear to disappear?
How do the females eat and Do Hedgehog nightly habits change if they have hoglets ?
The only thing eating the food is Gus Gus the huge mouse!
The hog highway is still in place and their immediate route not touched but know anything can happen.
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