My Hedgehogs

[Malleye]

I wrote earlier in the summer that the hedgehog nesting in my garden had gone into next door, tried to get under their gate and got stuck, but I heard her ‘quacking’ and between me and the neighbour, we loosened the gate hinges and freed her.
She eventually had three babies (that we know of) who all left the nest, with one of them, who was very small, stayed with mum for a few days longer.
Mum has vanished from the garden now, as have two of the young ones, but one young un has decided to stay.
He comes out every night, around 9.30 – 10ish for a feed (dog food), then goes for a mooch around the neighbours gardens, but pops back into mine every couple of hours for a snack.
I’ve enjoyed having them, and feel flattered that they chose my garden to nest and raise the next generation

[Nic]

Hi Malleye

Brilliant news that there was such a good outcome from the quacking and gate episode! Love it when things turn out so well. Yes, that’s quite an honour her choosing your garden to nest in. Glad you were able to enjoy seeing all the youngsters after the help you gave mother hog.

I hope the little one who has stayed put continues to do well.

Happy hog watching!

[Kitty878]

Hi Malleye,

Thanks for telling us about the hoglets! We have a similar story, in that the mother hog wandered off after raising her hoglets, perhaps to nest again and raise a new brood, and one of the hoglets left but one has continued to stay with us and sleeps over in the hedgehog houses. She does go out in the night but seems to regard our garden as the main residence. One time I watched her leave and she came back within five minutes, not sure if something scared her and she retreated to safety or if she just changed her mind about going out. I’m hoping she will hibernate here as well.

[Wsuffolkblue1961]

We have a regular number of hedgehog visitors to our garden. We leave a bowl of hedgehog food out for them every night, and have a trail camera positioned so we can watch them back later.

Just went to put out the bowl in its regular spot and there was a hog already waiting !

[Nic]

Hi Wsuffolkblue1961

Great news you have lots of hogs there!

Sounds familiar – they do seem to like catching us out from time to time by turning up early! Just to keep us on our toes!

Don’t forget to also leave out water all day every day. They can find a certain amount of food in the wild but can’t always find water. Wide but shallow plant saucers are ideal for that. Too small and they are very good at tipping it up! But they need to be shallow enough that a hoglet can’t still get out easily.

Good luck and happy hog watching.

[Author]

Posts