Resident Hedgehogs
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Over ten years ago I used to notice the security light at the rear coming on when I came home from a night shift, and then a Hedgehog rambling round the garden.
When I retired I rescued a Cairn and knowing how they were escape artists, made the garden Cairn proof , but I’d no worries as he had no interest in getting out.
He passed on and a second little lady Cairn came into our life via rescue.
One night we heard a lot of barking from the rear garden
It was our Cairn alerting us to the presence of something strange -a large hedgehog. No attack-she was too gentle for that ,just barking. Fast forward to last year when the Cairn passed on and a few months later another rescue came into our life. One night we were alerted to the return of the hedgehog.
But this rescue has a high prey drive and started hitting the hedgehog with her paws. Dog removed to house and hedgehog shot off. Every night dog wants out , sometimes there’s the large hedge hog, more often there’s not. I’ve seen it a lot at three in the morning . Even recently. But last night dog was treating the back gate with a lot of attention so I had a look. In the communal passage was a smaller hedge hog. Out of interest I weighed it =circa 400gm. So I seem to have two hedgehogs, possibly a mother and a child.
So Q1 – will they live in proximity without problems and
Q2 – at circa 400g will the smaller one put on enough weight with the proximity of a larger one to let it successfully hibernate or next tme I see it should I take it to local wildlife sanctuary.Hi Dave 024
Welcome to the Forum!
Q1. They should be fine living in the same area. Hogs have ranges rather than territories and their ranges overlap. Some hoglets move on to new ranges when they get a bit older but some stay.
Q2. The small hog should have enough time to put on enough weight. They put on weight really quickly when they’re small, but you could help it along by offering some supplementary food (cat/dog/hog food). I realise that’s made more difficult by the presence of the dog, but maybe you could take the dog out on a lead after dark? You don’t want the dog getting injured by the spines either – they can be quite sharp if the hog rolls up. If you don’t feel you can leave food for the hogs, water is really important to them too and easier to cater for – wide but shallow containers – plant saucers are ideal.
Here is a link about pets and hedgeogs which gives some ideas: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pets-and-hedgehogs/
Hogs seem to learn fairly quickly if food is put out only between certain times, so you could try that, although this isn’t the best time of year being not long until hibernation. So not long for them to get used to any routine. The larger hog may hibernate earlier than the young one.
Good luck. I hope you manage to reach some sort of compromise.
Thank you for the information Nick, had the pair in the garden tonight, they have a hog house in the garden, disguised with tarpaulin & “rooftop garden”. So far they have taken their biscuits from the doorway of the house, We are hoping they will go in eventually, I have water by the hedge & 2 flowerpots with treats as well.
Hi-Nic- As I mentioned, the smaller one was at first weigh in circa 400 G . A week later it was up to 450g. Since then it’s not been seen in garden, although our dog goes daft around the garden next day . It seems to be a bit of a glutton, as I’ve been feeding it dogfood. Circa 50g /day. I think it’s telling me something.
At the bottom of my garden I built a five foot fence to keep my dogs in ( it’s since been raised to stop JRT/Yorky getting over). Beyond that there’s a six foot fence with gaps. Inside this area there’s a lot of tree leaves etc and we’ve also been known to chuck the odd chunk of grass cuttings in this space – ideal from my reading of a home for Hogs. At the bottom of the panels, I’ve installed barge /gravel boards, and in one corner there’s a large gap. Every evening ,I push a plant pot holder filled with dog food ( circa 3″ dia ) into the gap, and every morning the holder is pushed out into the garden minus food. I have not seen any signs of slugs for a long time. I’d suggest that this little one an off spring of the larger one, as it seems to follow the paths the large one took.Hi. I have had a female hog since spring and then 2 hoglets came along and joined in. Now I only have a large hog and a new hoglet has turned up. I have 2 feeding shelters (1 wooden box and 1 Perspex box ) which the food is eaten from every night. The hoglet is happy to spend all night in the box snoozing so I added some newspaper strips however they both now spend the night there. Do you think they would want to hibernate in it as it’s on the patio and should probable be tucked away somewhere quiet? Also it can’t be a feeding station AND hibernation house can it? Thanks for any advice.
Hi Trevathick
If you put bedding in the feed box, it is likely to give he hogs the idea that they might sleep in it, so it’s better really to keep feeding boxes with plain wooden floors. No if a hog decides to nest in one of your feed boxes, you shouldn’t use it for feeding. If you want to encourage them to nest in either I would suggest the wooden box. Otherwise there might be condensation problems if they nested in the plastic box.
But I would encourage them by using natural nesting material – torn up paper is fine for hogs which have to be kept inside for some reason, but outside their preference is medium sized leaves, but also some long grasses to help weave things together. With leaves they can make a waterproof nest, whereas paper would be likely to soak up and retain any moisture.
Unless you are going to have a new box somewhere quiet, I wouldn’t start moving the boxes you already have around now. It’s the hogs’ choice whether they use them or not, but they might not mind the patio.
Hi Nic. Thank you for your advice. Yes I am finding the wooden box is now very messy each morning with wet newspaper etc. I will put a pile of leaves nearby and see if they start moving it in and also use the Perspex box as a feed station only next to it to see what they do. Is it ok to use straw or is hay best please? I have established it’s a large female and small hog, offspring, I would think as they crawl all over each other and nestle comfortably together.
Hi Trevathick
I think people use straw and hay. Although, I think hay would be more easily moulded and woven. The hibernation nest is usually quite an elaborate construction with a mound of vegetation with a ‘chamber’ in the middle which the hedgehog can hibernate in. But if the hedgehog goes out the chamber should remain. Amazing construction – I don’t think we would manage nearly so well!
But most hogs prefer to choose their own nesting material, so it’s a good idea to leave loads nearby so that they can select what they want. The advantage of leaves is that they can layer them and create a waterproof and quite sturdy construction. But they need loads of leaves. Imagine that they would fill a whole box with them, but layered together, so think of the amount you think would fill the box and then multiply that several times. But some leaves is better than no leaves.
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