Hedgehogs having an altercation
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Hello,
Having put my house out last week I was pleased to see it being using. I was also surprised to find what looked like two nests inside when I looked the other day (both empty) as I had only seen one hedgehog. Last night (29th March) I saw two hedgehogs and they were having what looked like a short but rather aggressive fight with one being pinned down in a ball and the other giving it a good shove and chase. It took a while to uncurl and resembled a beetle on it’s back trying to right itself.
Would it be that this is two males, fighting over the house or territory? (I did wonder if there were two different hedgehogs, as the other night one didn’t seem to go to the same spots as the other or know exactly where to go for the feeding stations). Or would it be a male and female? The victor looked like it was shaking it’s leg after – is this marking the territory or maybe it was just having a scratch and I couldn’t see clearly? Both did moved away but the one pinned down seemed to take a while to recover. One seems bigger than the other and I am concerned as I think they both seem to have a few ticks. I don’t really want to intervene, I know ticks do drop off eventually and imagine any you take off would be replaced by others as there is farmland and deer fairly close by.
It’s likely 2 males, but could also be femaies. They don’t fight over territory, but will fight over food, so it’s a good idea to have a couple of feeding stations
You are right about leaving them to get on with it.
Hedgehogs normally carry a few ticks and to be honest if it’s not more than 10 that you can see I wouldn’t worry about it. ( there will be more that you don’t see ). It’s only usually when a hog gets sick that the ticks can get out of hand and need removing
I’m experiencing this also. The ‘original’ male that was last to disappear over winter and first back in February has been bullied by a new male that came in a bit later.
What seems to have made things worse is then recently a smaller female turned up and both the males have shown a lot of interest but now if both males show up at the same time there’s always a fight. Unfortunately the original male is now walking with a noticeable limp.
I’m cautious to intervene, hoping its perhaps a bad bite and he will recover OK but if he’s been forced over awkwardly and broken or disclocated a leg then surely the best thing would be to try to trap him and get him to a rescue centre? Not sure what to do for the best.There’s nothing you can do about the hogs rolling each other up or even fighting. It’s just what hogs, especially males do. If you interfered, they might just have an even more ferocious fight when you weren’t around. Not a good idea. They need to be able to get on with their lives in their own hoggy fashion. The limp could have been caused by all sorts of other things as well. Mostly the hogs just roll up and their legs are tucked in, although sometimes they resist and use their legs to try to prevent being pushed along.
But if you are worried about the limp, it would be a good idea to contact your local hog rescue (you can get contact details from BHPS 01584 890801). You could at least have a chat with them and explain the injury more fully and take their advice.
Sounds like it’s a similar story for other people on here,I guess as they are emerging it’s normal behaviour to encounter rivals. Hope the hog with the limp improves. It took a while for one of the hogs I was watching to recover and initially moved off gingerly but seemed ok.
I have a couple of feeding stations and am trying out a range of hedgehog food brands and dry/semi moist/wet to see what they prefer, though not too much, just a bit to supplement natural food. I got a great video on my night vision binoculars of it eating a worm which was fab to watch, though bad luck for the worm!
I don’t want to derail someone else’s thread but this is the hedgehog that’s limping quite badly, though he seems to be able to still use the injured leg to scratch with.
No problem Bassman. That looks like a it does indeed need checking over. Hope you can get it to a local carer/rehab soon incase it’s broken or infected. Keep us posted …
Neither of my two hogs were here last night. Perhaps it was too cold? Wondering if with the cold snap that’s coming do hogs have a ‘mini hibernation’? Or lots of other things could be the reason eg. Found other food, traffic incident or took a different route ….
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