Recommended distance between feeding station and house

[tkid]

Hi there,

Is there a recommended distance between a feeding station and a house? From what I’ve read they need to be separate, but have no idea how far they should be from each other.

The house that we’ve built has become a feeding station, so are planning to build a separate feeding station (so that the house ends up being used as a house), but are not sure how far apart they should be.

Thanks.

[Bethany Craker]

As long as they have food and water and plenty of it then distance from that to their home honestly will not matter hedgehogs will just be grateful that you supplied a meal and they normally stick around more if food is near a good housing situation like a house full of hay ect

Hope this helped awnsered your question

[stef]

There is no recommended distance, however common sense would suggest not too close as you don’t want to encourage other animals to investigate the nest box – eg rats
To encourage a hog to use a box put bedding ( leaves, hay etc ) near but not in the box as hogs prefer to make their own nests.
Also don’t be suprised if the box isn’t used for a year or two as it gets acclimated into your garden and loses human scent.

[Nic]

Hi tkid

Totally agree with Stef. There is no recommended distance, as such, but it’s best not to have feeding and nesting box too close together. As Stef says you wouldn’t want to attract predators to the nest box. But also a nesting Mother may not be too happy having other hogs (especially rowdy male hogs!) congregating right outside where she is raising young ones. But the space you have available might dictate things to some extent.

I would suggest not putting anything resembling bedding in a box you want to use for feeding because it sometimes gives hogs the idea they might want to set up home in there.

Good luck. I hope the hogs approve of your final arrangements for them!

[Baldwin hedgehog]

I’d say as far apart as practical. Saying that I had a feed station 10 meters from 2 hog houses last year and they both got used.

If you can put your hog house in deep cover under a bramble bush that should keep the cats away

[tkid]

Thank you all for your helpful responses!

[valg]

Really helpful information, thankyou.

[Author]

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