Vomiting Hedgehog?
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Hi,
So recently the hedgehogs in my garden were making a mess with the food that i have been leaving out for them so i moved the feeding station to a different area of my garden on concrete. I moved it on the Thursday, that night the hedgehog didn’t find the food so i left the food out for the day instead of taking it inside for it to be there ready for the next night (Friday night), I left the camera out by the feeding station so i could see if it would eat the food and it did, but then it threw it back up then just walked away and went about as if nothing happened. I’ve never seen it do this in the 2/3 months that it’s been visiting my garden and eating the cat biscuits that i leave out most nights, its droppings look normal all the time. Could there be something wrong with the hedgehog? or was it because i left the food outside for two nights? The vomit that’s left there looks like it’s mostly made of the cat biscuits so could it have been the biscuits?
I’m really worried and hope i haven’t done anything that would cause the hedgehog to become ill or anything like that.
I’d really appreciate any suggestions
ThanksEdit:
I have two dishes of water out, one by the feeding station outside and the other on my concrete path, often birds drink and bathe and cats drink, I change the water as often as I can but the hedgehog could’ve drank water that birds have been bathing in, could that have given the hedgehog a bad tummy?Or maybe could it have been the tap water, I read in a previous post that the chlorine is bad in the tap water, could that be causing issues? To replace the tap water I have a water butt in my garden that collects rain water, Would it be better if I switched to using the rain water out of the water butt for the hedgehog to drink?
Hi, sorry no one has answered you. Did you get help from a carer?
Regarding the water, don’t overthink it. Tap water is fine and so is leaving it out for several days without changing it. Hogs drink what we call dirty water all the time. It’s more the people that are squeamish!
Regarding the vomiting. It’s not normal.
Is the hog still visiting each evening? If it is then it was probably just a one off, but if not then I’m afraid it could have been something else.Yes, the hog is still visiting. The next night I thought it would be best not to leave any food out for the night and that morning everything looked normal by the feeding station, then the next night (last night) I put a very small amount of food out like a tablespoon of biscuits, this morning the food was gone, there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, I think it might be worth me putting the camera by the feeding station tonight just to check everything is okay, I have seen the Hedgehog roaming around in my garden from my bedroom window for the past 3 or so nights. So maybe it was just a one off. Thanks for the advice.
I feel like I may have made something glitch or something like that so apologies if I have posted the same reply more than once.
I noticed on last nights wildlife camera footage that the hedgehog that was sick has a few dark marks over his spine and his face. Not sure if that could have anything to do with it? Maybe it’s had an accident. I only noticed these marks the past 2 night
Last night I noticed the hedgehog lying down and like dragging its self over the concrete, not sure if it’s tired? Or itchy or something more serious?
It sat in the feeding station for a few minutesHello Emily
You need to contact your nearest carer for advice urgently as we need more info than you’re putting on here
sorry I’m late to this conversation – and I hope you managed to get the hog to a hog hospital/carer.
I just want to comment on something you said re the water – you asked if you should leave the water in or outside of the feeding station.
I think it’s probably best, and many people do this, to leave little dishes around your garden, some with stones in (for the bees).
What I have done though, is I’ve got a very shallow gravel tray, which I managed to find flat rectangular stones (on my travels), which has made a nice line of steps so it’s easy for them to climb out – which they sometimes use – but more often then not they tend to put their front paws on the stone and have a lick rather than jump in. However, it has become very popular with the birds, and they have a lot of fun taking turns to get baths and drink during the day.
So, and I have always done this before I had the gravel tray, I have got a water dish from Ark Wildlife (sold as a hedgehog water dish) – which I used to put outside of the feeding station, but what often happens is that a bird will poo in it. So now, I got another plastic storage box, cut one side, and have joined it onto the existing feeding station – so it now looks like a L shape, and the second box has created a tunnel. and I now put the water dish in there- which the hogs have always preferred drinking out of that – and it’s just tap water – they get a clean (sort of sterilised bowl) each day with fresh water (but it’s not necessary to sterilise – I’m just happy to do that each day).
So the water stays clean, I also dug out the soil a bit so that the bowl is lower down, so smaller hogs can reach in. and also put it in the corner of the 2nd feeding station, so they tend not to walk through it – but sometimes they get pushed into it by another hog.
The 2nd box made quite a narrow tunnel, however, I’ve kept the entrance to the 2nd box 4 inches wide but have now extended it out a bit, so it’s a lot wider when they get in, and then they have to go through a 4inch hole to get to the 1st feeding station to get to the food – which has made it cat and fox proof.
A fox was repeatedly trying to get to the food a month ago but has given up after not being successful.
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