General Chat

I would love to hear from anyone who is feeding hedgehogs in their gardens or indoors or have hedgehog boxes in their gardens or feeding stations.

My hubby made me a hedgehog box as I had been feeding one in the garden for about two weeks and we saw it many times via the outside light. The night we located it at the bottom of the garden under the camelia the hedgehog moved in!!!! We were so surprized to see it actually enter the box after feeding.

I used to put down plenty of food in two cat dishes with a water bowl at the side. Then we did'nt see the big one for a while and then spotted little Hogwart. Fed it for a couple of weeks and hubby caught it in his fish net, popped it in a carrier bag and brought it in where we weighed it in the kitchen scales. That night it spent in a large cardboard box with another box in it for it's nest in a coldish room indoors.

Hubby then adapted my smallish chicken ark by making another bedroom place within the nest box and raising the ark on a stand he made for it.

We have little Hogwart who weighed in at just under a pound (in old money).

He is the muckiest little thing going. I cannot see where he puts all the food offered each night but every morning I have a lot of little presents from it. I serve a selection of dried cat food and tinned, peanuts and sultanas and anything else I can find to offer suitable for hogs.



Since having the hog indoors I have looked at many Hedgehog sites but do you think I can find anywhere how much to feed a night?

I have ordered special Hedgehog food for it at the local pet shop and am hoping there will be some kind of feeding guidelines on the packet.

How much do your hogs eat?

About as much as a small horse and they wee as much too.

I have wintered several hedgehogs and made few mistakes along the way.Mine have only ever had cat food,they like the supermeat best I find. I had a cat who only liked the gravy and left his meat so the hedgehogwould get the meat.They like cake too but that's another story..

You don't want to delve into their eating habits in the wild,it is just about anything including carrion and their dung stinks too.

I have had hedgehogs who would not drink water but did seem to get enough fluid from their food but then one of then dehydrated so,the last time I had a hedgehog in,and I haven't seen one for a couple of years now,I put the meat in a deepish sugar bowl with some water.

Watch out for their feet.I put hay in te sleeping quarter and one of mine lost toes through getting a piece wound round his foot.

It is illegal to capture and keep a hedgehog. They are wild animals and do not take to captivity very well. Best release him back to his home. Wild animals arent there to be made into pets!

Mine has shredded newspaper in its bedroom and plenty of clean just on the outside if it wants more. His run bit is lined with newspapers which I get from the local shop as we only have one a week!!

I would'nt put hay or straw in its bed. I used to have a pet shop so know all about what effects certain beddings can have on different animals and birds.

Elrick thanks for your comment but I am only keeping it indoors to feed it up as it is under weight to get through the winter. They have to weigh at least 500 grms to 550 grms. This one is 454grms so would'nt survive the winter. Once it is the right weight I shall release it back to our 6 and a half acre garden.

My thought was that they sleep in grass and hay in the wild.

Over the years I have developed a technique with them. I always used a plastic box that could be washed and put a layer of newspaper,a layer of clumping cat litter and then another layer of newspaper which it would mangle in the night anyway. then I couls scoop the mangled stuff out with the mighty great clumps of litter in the morning when it was in bed.

Until they grew too big for it and could be let go I had one of those grey capsule things that are for small pets to sleep in.

If they are under about a pound in weight DO NOT PUT THEM BACK INTO THE WILD.They don't have enough body fat to survive and hedgehogs need all the help they can get.

I have heard that there is a nematode that is causing internel bleeding. There is a "natural" slug killer that involves nematodes and I wonder if hedgehogs ingesting those slugs are themselves affected.

*shakes head*

Then take it to somewhere that knows what they are doing!

Eldrick.There is a wildlife hospital down the road to me.They are innundated with hoglets at this time of the year and farm them out to people,

I have tended them at the hospital before I started taking them in myself. Each hedgehog costs a charity money and the only ones I have ever lost have been ill before I found them and have been tended by a vet,at my expense,if they have lived long enough to be ttaken there.

Please stop shaking your head now.

Hedgehogs are on the decline so any help with feeding them up to get them through the winter is quite ok.

We have had big problems with slugs this year and,if we lose our prickly friends the problem will be even greater.

They are a very important part of our eco-system.

Slugs and snails will only be eaten by hedgehogs if they cannot get the right kind of foods. Also if they et slugs and snails they are liable to get lung worm which will kill them through causeing their lung to get congested.

Have you heard about these nematodes?

I feed the hedghogs in my garden with cat food and water.

they eat most of the slugs,beetles and worms in the front and back garden.

There is quite a bit of info on the internet about the food they eat.

http://www.thehedgehog.co.uk/db.htm
that one is near Epping Forest.

http://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/


This is the British hedgehog presevation


http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/carers.htm


Good Luck Mel and Sharon in helping the hogs.

Survival of the fittest comes to mind.

Would it be possible to provide a free entry/egress outdoor habitat and feed them there rather than bring them indoors?

I have hedgehog boxes in the garden with hogs in them already.

It is just that this one is too small to get through the winter and if it does hibinate it will probably die.

I have all the info from those sites that Sue put up and was just about to put the links on here myself.

I am still feeding the ones out in the garden too.

Nudge

I am sure that I saw the local wildlife site asking people to take the underweight ones in and feed them up to the correct weight to be released. They too are inundated.

Our local charity says don't let the tiny ones hibernate, but take them to the centre and they will look after them. She told me what I already knew, not to give them bread and milk or fishy catfood and to give things like digestive biscuits as well, and peanuts, anything that helps to build up the fat to help them stay alive through the cold weather.

With a bitter winter forecast we will probably lose more little creatures, I was feeding the hedgehogs in the garden as usual but didn't see them for a couple of weeks before my holiday altho there is always food outside for the groundfeeding birds so they can share what they have. We have some spaces behind the shed and garage with old wood and such so they might find shelter there and there are lots of leaves etc in the garden too


Lizx

Morning and thanks for your replys Ann and Purple.

Yes they like piles of logs as there are a nice lot of beetles under those. Beetles are their main diet and thats why the droppings that you see during the summer etc are black.

It is a good idea if you have a log pile to have an area under it for a hog to get under and put a piece of old roofing felt over the top to stop rain getting down.

Well my Hogarth came out last night and ate it's food from under the garden seat by its box. I put three small sticks against the entrance and if it comes out it pushes them aside. Also with the hard frost we had last night you can see where it has walked around as there are tiny tracks on the grass.