Worried
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I have recently bought a hedgehog house and realised that it isnt a good idea to put the food and water in with the bedding, so I ordered another one for their food. This came and it is tiny with no removeable roof and I can only just about get one little bowl in, So I have ordered another one with a removable roof to put the food in out of the way and so it keeps dry. Last night I put the food inside the small house and the water outside and set up a makeshift cover over the water with an old seed tray held up by a brick which I wedged in the stones – like a pillar. I could hear the hedgehog when I went to bed. When I got up this morning, the brick had been knocked over and I am really worried that it may have fallen on the hedgehog, the food hadn’t been eaten either 🙁 . I couldn’t see any injured hogs and I checked in the bushes in the garden. If the brick fell over and scared the Hog, is it likely to come back does anyone know? I clearly wont be doing that again.
Why did you cover the water tray? I just leave shallow bowls around the garden as well as just outside the feeding station.
In case it rained, sorry, I am new to this and doing my best…. Probably will make mistakes and it is likely that it was a cat that knocked everything over
MassAC, hi, you won’t know if your hogs been injured till you keep watch when they come out, they could have been pushing each other, but most like to be something else. You don’t need to cover water as you should be giving rain water only anyway. I have a lovely box for hibernation only they prefer the room off the garage. As for feeding station, there are some good ideas on the gallery with plenty of photos. You don’t need a fancy made box as a plastic under bed box is good enough provided you cut a hole in one corner and place two heavy bricks, one behind the other, inside opposite the hole, to stop cats getting in. A small cat or kitten can still manage it, but most don’t bother. The plastic box is easier to clean out as well, as they can be messy eaters, drinkers and sometimes use it as a toilet as well. As Nic pointed out a while ago and I forgot to mention, go round the cut hole, the size of a cd case, with tape so they don’t cut themselves. Good luck and try not to worry. We all learn by our mistakes.
Hi MassaAC
It sounds as if you’ve gone to a lot of trouble for the hogs. It might take them a little while to get used to a new box, so don’t worry if they don’t use them immediately. I have also found, over the years, that there are some hogs who just don’t like going into boxes, so I have a perspex type sheet propped up on four 3L earth filled pots with bricks on top. They seem to consider that is outside enough for them and it also seems as good as the boxes at deterring the cats. I also have feeding boxes, but the outdoor option seems to be the favourite. This arrangement is on paving, so that the area can be easily kept clean.
The others are right – no need to cover up the water. They do like rain water but there seems to be some debate as to which is better – rain water or tap water. (some worry about potential ‘bugs’ from water butts and others worry about chemicals in tap water). I think it is better to put out what you have than not put out any water at all. I also leave water dotted around the garden. I use plant saucers – shallow, but the larger widthwise the better – hogs often just walk straight through water bowls/saucers/etc. and are very good at tipping water over if the container isn’t wide enough!
Re. the brick falling – it’s hard to say with hogs, they don’t always do what we expect them to do(!) but may not worry too much about it (even if it was one of them that knocked it over). The males often biff each other around fairly roughly, so could have knocked it over, but hopefully their spines would have helped to protect them. Fingers crossed.
Hope the hog comes back soon – and hopefully some others, too.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
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