Our little hog friend of last year hasn't reappeared

[Nic]

Wow Willpar! Amazing. Do you do that every day? Not sure how good the mealworms would be for cleaning their teeth though, especially if they are damp. That ferret food sounds interesting – does that mean you have ferrets as well?

I got a couple of tiny tins of chicken flavoured cat food for hoglet to try out. Long time since I bought cat food (other than kitten biscuits for the hogs) and it has all changed so much. There didn’t seem to be any ‘normal’ sized tins of cat food in the supermarket at all, only these tiny tins, sachets, etc.

I hope this cold spell isn’t too much of a shock for the intrepid hogs who are out and about. My new cam is out tonight to see what is going on down the garden. Just hope the batteries last the night, with it being so cold.

[William]

Hi Nic, yes i do that every day. At least now i only have to do one mix. But with one of those small electric blenders it makes short work of it.
No i don’t have ferrets, in fact the ferret food was mentioned on this forum several years ago, and decided to give it a try. Have never looked back since. Am a great believer in find what works for you and stick to it. Vitalin as far as i know is the only one that can be softened with water.

Put out one and a half bowls last night and it was all gone this morning.No chicken breast tonight they had it all. Have to make do with chicken pate` cat food.
With one and a half bowls ate it did get me wondering if i have more than one, as it seemed a lot for one to eat. But just in case i have put out the same tonight.

Willpar.

[Nic]

Hi Willpar

Does sound as if there might be more than one hog. I’ll have to look out for vitalin.

I saw poor hoglet on video this morning going up to the water bowl, but it was frozen. Luckily the one inside the feed box seemed to be ok. Only one clip of her on the new cam – trotting off down the path – but unfortunately it stopped before I saw which way she went next – I’ll have to set it for a longer clip next time.

[William]

Hi Nic, i put a bowl of water under the front door porch it never froze there. But up in the garden that large bowl of water is well and truly frozen. Even down here in SW Devon.
Don’t know if allowed here but will give it a try.

This is doorcam as i call it as i have a feeder behind the wheelie bins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOQVnTLulCA

Taken last night.

Willpar.

[Nic]

Hi Willpar

You get a good picture on your video. I know it can be deceptive on video, but that looks to be quite a big hog. Very pale Skirt. A male too – which fits in with what normally happens here. The males are always first back. Although he is a bit early.

We had a slight sprinkling of snow here, but hoglet was in attendance as usual, although she did seem to leave a bit early.

[William]

Hi Nic, It is only one of those bresser small trail cams, and it is only thirty inches away from the entrance to the feeder, outside my front door, but behind the wheelie bins. I did have two of those cams but i dropped one and that was the end of it. I do have an assortment of other cams that i use.

In fact i put one up in the garden last night, but it only triggered once. Was a hedgehog there but could well be the same one.
But doorcam got the hedgehog four times last night, may have came in more but the camera goes to sleep for a half an hour after each trigger.

No snow here, in fact it has turned mild here now. No frost last night and some light drizzle here this morning.

Willpar.

[Nic]

Hi Willpar and Annie

I think if I put my cam that close the lights would be too bright and everything would just come out white. I sometimes think the hogs must know when the cameras are on ‘sleep mode’ and move around then, just to keep us guessing! That must have been annoying dropping the cam, Willpar – even the cheaper ones aren’t really cheap.

The snow here was really only a sprinkling and is well gone now.

Hoglet seems to be exploring more now. My new ‘gate’ cam has seen her disappearing under the gate a few times. She can’t be going far as she isn’t gone long. Except when she leaves for the morning.

I think I should stop calling hoglet ‘she’ as I am beginning to suspect that she might in fact be a he. I was never sure, I just wanted him/her to be female, especially being, probably, Digger’s hoglet. I’m still not absolutely certain but now hoglet is growing I sometimes think I can see, on video, a slight ‘blob’ underneath. I haven’t seen anything when he/she is scratching but he/she is quite clever at having a good scratch without rolling over too much. Time will tell, I hope.

I tried out the tinned cat food last night and none of it was touched. I will try some more tonight, but maybe it’s just as well they were tiny tins. The kitten biscuits are still going down well, but hoglet has also been seen foraging a bit down the garden.

[Jens]

A bit of an off topic reply. 🙂 This summer I was with friends in a forrest where there was a similar cam like yours and one of us told that his science cellegues put it there. He asked us to cross the camera while impersonating our favorite animals in order to give his collegues a laugh. I tried to do a hunting hedgehog.

[Annie Mac]

Nice to see Wilpar’s bit of video, also good to hear you’re both seeing activity, makes up for the total non existence of any here. Hoglet is a star isn’t he/she, bricks are obviously not cat friendly & he/she’s more adjustable! Holly Johnson in Frankie Goes to Hollywood is a guy so you could call your hoglet Holly whichever sex he/she is.

Jens gem about impersonating a hunting hedgehog made me laugh!

The closest I’m getting to a visitor is a cat who I spotted scooping bird pellets out of the fence feeder, so have been putting food out for him occasionally assuming he’s hungry. Saw Frank go to the dish (food he doesn’t like) stare hard at it then with his head on one side start scooping pawfuls of it out & flinging it on the path! No idea what that’s all about. Didn’t eat it just skipped off to do Frankie type of stuff.

[Nic]

Hi Annie

Yes Willpar’s videos are good. The interesting thing is that the hogs on that and another of Willpar’s videos elsewhere on the forum, which have presumably been hibernating, seem to be moving much more slowly than hoglet, who hasn’t. Hoglet seems to tear around the place now. I was glad to hear Jens’ favourite animal is hedgehogs. I can’t even begin to imagine how I would impersonate one!

Several cat attempts have been made to get into the feed box, but so far, unsuccessfully. There are at least 5 different cats which are regular visitors. Two of them have been seen with their rear ends sticking out of the doorway to the box, but must have decided they can’t get past the brick. The other night a big black cat was showing a lot of interest, sniffing round the entrance, when hoglet appeared, trotting briskly across the patio heading straight for the doorway. It’s easy to forget when looking at the video that it is dark. Hoglet pulled up sharply, and pulled his head in a bit – cat sniffed towards him then departed in one direction and shortly afterwards hoglet in the other direction.

Hoglet is getting more adventurous now and disappears for longer. Also he isn’t going into the nest box so often. He must be taking different routes up the garden as some nights the camera misses his arrival. I have noticed that he is spending more time foraging and is often seen on the lawn which is rather long and shaggy at the moment. He also seems to be drinking more outside – front feet in the water bowl – Brrr.

The trouble with him being, probably, a male, is that I have a feeling that the males disperse when they get a bit older. They usually make occasional visits to start with, but they become fewer. I suppose it is partly because the youngsters get beaten up by the big boys, but it may be a natural way of avoiding too much inter-breeding. I hadn’t thought of Holly being a suitable name for male or female. I was desperately trying to think of a male name, but the only thing I could think of which sounded vaguely like hoglet, was Hogarth. Slightly pretentious, maybe, for little hoglet, but sometimes they just end up with the name that begins to stick.

Good old Frank – he sounds a very entertaining cat!

[Annie Mac]

Hi Nic

Been to Weston-super-Mare for some r&r, very surprised to see so much snow there for a couple of days & concerned for the welfare of Hogarth & all the other hogs who haven’t hibernated.

How is he?

[Nic]

Hi Annie

I hope you are well after your visit to Weston-super-mare. The snow was a bit of a problem – I cleared a path up the garden for hoglet (he hasn’t quite changed name yet!) one night, but by the next morning it was a foot deep again. Cleared it again the next night, but of course the poor chap had to get through whatever else was in between here and where his day nest is. I didn’t see him for 2 nights, but then he was back again, looking very wary and ate quite a lot of food the first couple of nights back. The snow has gone now, and thank goodness he is back to his normal self again. He seems to be spending less time here and doing more foraging, which is good really – the foraging bit. He still seems to be eating about the same amount but in fewer ‘sittings’.

I did wonder whether I had another hog back as well, but think it may just have been hoglet. The cameras were sometimes a bit misty. It shouldn’t be long now before some more of the males reappear. Hope you get lots of hogs there this year.

[Nic]

Hi Annie

Hope you are ok – you’ve been very quiet lately.

Very exciting here this morning when I checked the cams. One of the males has returned from hibernation. Poor hoglet didn’t know what had hit him – literally. He was trotting down the path without a care in the world, when suddenly this hog tears across the grass and biffs him. I don’t think hoglet has come across a adult male hog before – they had all gone to hibernate when he appeared – and he didn’t behave with the necessary respect. For a while he refused to roll up and so got a good biffing – poor chap. (I really will have to change his name, because he is nearly as big as the returner, but haven’t found a name that ‘sticks’ yet.) Eventually he did roll up and the other hog trotted on towards the feeding area. He seemed to know where to go and managed to get into the feed box without too much trouble.

The feed box is another story. One of the cats managed to breach the defences and got in. Despite the fact that there was a heavy brick on top of the lid, it managed to push the lid up. There is now a brick and a half to get past in the box and two bricks on the top. No further incursions, so far, and no problem, it seems, for the hogs.

It is such a relief to have one of the hogs back from hibernation. This time last year there were already several back and I was beginning to fear something was seriously amiss. Just hope more of them return soon, and preferably earlier in the night, so I can see them in person!

I went out to feed the birds this morning and found the patio had been taken over by cats. One on a small shed I have there and the other seemingly trying to make serious attempts to get me to adopt it. It kept rubbing round my legs and jumped up at the door when I went in. Cute cat, but I don’t want to encourage them because of the birds. Usually I just clap my hands or shoo them off, but this one wouldn’t go – and don’t want to be too mean to them. In the end I had to escort it down the garden to the gate. So far it hasn’t been back.

[Annie Mac]

Hi Nic, yes been a bit quiet, mainly because my Dad died on February 12th & that’s also why I went to Weston for a week to get my head together. He was 91 but that doesn’t make things any easier.

Have made a feeding box in case of hog visits from an (abandoned in the street by a neighbour ) old plastic storage box, upturned with a hog sized cut entrance offset each end. Heavy weights on top to stop it being overturned/blown away. So far only a cat has been interested & she managed to pull the feeding dish out of the entrance & ate the semi moist hog food & cat biscuits that were in it! She’s the one who scoops bird food out of the feeder on the fence, seems well fed but she obviously disagrees.

Seems you have a cat problem of your own, wonder where they’ve all come from. Poor hoglet getting biffed, hope he gets an easier life from now on. Blinkin cheek muscling in on his garden when he’s been your regular visitor all through winter, better put a sign up declaring it his territory.

Time to put my camera out & try some more with my feeding shelter & working out how to stop Cat from getting the dish out, she must be a contortionist.

[Nic]

Hi Annie

Really sorry to hear about your Dad. Him being 91 doesn’t make things any easier at all. It just means he was around for more of your life and so leaves a bigger gap. It takes a while, probably longer than many people imagine, but I hope you are beginning to feel a bit more like yourself.

Sounds like you’ve got a right one there with that cat. Very considerate of someone to abandon a potential hog feeding box. I think it’s a good idea to have two entrances. I know it gives the cats more chance, but also the opportunity for a smaller hog to make an escape, if necessary. I suspect someone got caught in my feed box last night. The ‘furniture’ had been a bit re-arranged. I think hoglet definitely needs a notice on ‘his’ feed box! Depending on how big your box is, could you fit a small brick inside the doors with a hog sized gap, so the cat couldn’t reach the dish? I’ve been using up so many bricks for hog related reasons, I think I am going to have to get some more from somewhere.

I’m having trouble coming up with a name for hoglet. Usually one comes to me fairly easily, but none have semed quite right for hoglet, somehow. The latest is Horace. Horace Hog has a bit of a ring to it. I will have a think about it for a few days. I was looking it up in my Grandad’s old ‘Complete Book of Fortune’ and came across ‘Omens derived From Animals’. It says ‘Hedgehog. – An animal of good omen. To overtake a hedgehg is lucky, while to meet one going in the opposite direction is more fortunate still.’ Rather lovely, I thought. As the book is quite old, I don’t imagine they were thinking of cars, but probably more likely being on foot. Lucky people – there must have been loads more hogs around in those days.

If you are interested in the progress of the petition keep a look out tomorrow afternoon. They are doing a thunderclap thing. I didn’t really know what it was, but apparently they send messages to all the people who support it’s twitters or facebooks or whatever. Then all their followers would have access to it. The initial target for supporters was 500 and last time I looked it was 1,222 supporters with a social reach of over 2 million! Hopefully the Petition will get a good boost as a result.

I think you definitely need to get your camera out. If nothing else to catch the cat on film pulling the feeding dish out. But I really hope you get lots of hogs this year.

[Author]

Posts