Your Garden Hedgehogs

All of that essential hedgie chat about our favourite spiky friends
Jacksparrow
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Jacksparrow » Sun Apr 05, 2020 8:11 pm

I have set my trailcam two of the last three nights and have failed to record a single hog visit :( It is very disappointing since in recent times I have had a good number visiting. I'm hoping things will look up but my local Hog population appear to have over-wintered badly.

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Butterfly
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Butterfly » Mon Apr 06, 2020 1:18 pm

Sorry to hear that Jack :( , lets hope some show up, still maybe time?

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peregrine
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by peregrine » Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:10 am

Over the last few years I can count in my hand the number of times I have had a hedgehog in the garden. I have a bird table with a few hanging feeders. I also have a ground feeder. I always feed sunflower heart chips. I have tried other food but only sunflower heart chip attract the birds to feed.Our neighbour 'vapes', his last about 21.30 - 22.00. On Tuesday I was decoration our bedroom, 'she who must be obeye'd was in the garden and our neighbour was having a vape. He said to the missus that he was about to retire the evening before when he heard a commotion. Looking into our garden he saw a hedgehoge eating the sunflower heart chisp. That night (Tuesday) we put the usual feed out and sure enough the hedgehog came back and had a good feed, I assumed it was a male as it was quite large. He came back on the Wednesday. On Thursday he came back and after a while he was joined by another much smaller hedgehog. I assumes this was a female. He came himself last night. Unfortunately there is not enough light to take a pic or video. Feel blessed, not only do I have a hedgehog but I have two.

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Butterfly
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Butterfly » Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:47 am

peregrine wrote:
Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:10 am
Over the last few years I can count in my hand the number of times I have had a hedgehog in the garden. I have a bird table with a few hanging feeders. I also have a ground feeder. I always feed sunflower heart chips. I have tried other food but only sunflower heart chip attract the birds to feed.Our neighbour 'vapes', his last about 21.30 - 22.00. On Tuesday I was decoration our bedroom, 'she who must be obeye'd was in the garden and our neighbour was having a vape. He said to the missus that he was about to retire the evening before when he heard a commotion. Looking into our garden he saw a hedgehoge eating the sunflower heart chisp. That night (Tuesday) we put the usual feed out and sure enough the hedgehog came back and had a good feed, I assumed it was a male as it was quite large. He came back on the Wednesday. On Thursday he came back and after a while he was joined by another much smaller hedgehog. I assumes this was a female. He came himself last night. Unfortunately there is not enough light to take a pic or video. Feel blessed, not only do I have a hedgehog but I have two.
I don't have hedgehogs in my garden but I read many times from different wildlife rehabilitators that bird food is really bad for hedgehogs :( .
Here is what one of them says, the person operates a small hospital for sick, injured and orphaned wild hedgehogs:

I'd be very careful in letting them eat bird food or mealworms :(

Jacksparrow
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Jacksparrow » Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:15 pm

I'll await willpar's report but as far as I was aware it was just mealworms that Hogs shouldn't be having too much of. My birds usually make sure there is not much dropped food under the feeders but I've never seen any hog take an interest in what little there was.

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peregrine
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by peregrine » Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:44 am

Butterfly wrote:
Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:47 am
peregrine wrote:
Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:10 am
Over the last few years I can count in my hand the number of times I have had a hedgehog in the garden. I have a bird table with a few hanging feeders. I also have a ground feeder. I always feed sunflower heart chips. I have tried other food but only sunflower heart chip attract the birds to feed.Our neighbour 'vapes', his last about 21.30 - 22.00. On Tuesday I was decoration our bedroom, 'she who must be obeye'd was in the garden and our neighbour was having a vape. He said to the missus that he was about to retire the evening before when he heard a commotion. Looking into our garden he saw a hedgehoge eating the sunflower heart chisp. That night (Tuesday) we put the usual feed out and sure enough the hedgehog came back and had a good feed, I assumed it was a male as it was quite large. He came back on the Wednesday. On Thursday he came back and after a while he was joined by another much smaller hedgehog. I assumes this was a female. He came himself last night. Unfortunately there is not enough light to take a pic or video. Feel blessed, not only do I have a hedgehog but I have two.
I don't have hedgehogs in my garden but I read many times from different wildlife rehabilitators that bird food is really bad for hedgehogs :( .
Here is what one of them says, the person operates a small hospital for sick, injured and orphaned wild hedgehogs:

I'd be very careful in letting them eat bird food or mealworms :(
As soon as I realised hedgehogs were coming into my garden I went onto the Net to see what they could and couldn't eat. First on the list was cat food and hedgehog food which I immediately went out and bought. They can have mealworms but should be fed only occasionally in small portions (1 TBS or less)

Willpar
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Willpar » Sun Apr 12, 2020 6:56 pm

Yes, sunflower hearts and peanuts are a no no now., due to not much nutritional value. Also raisins and saltanas, due to high sugar content. Now I just feed a junior dry cat food I get from my German supermarket. But cant always rely on it being stocked. So now I also buy a 6kg sack of hedgehog food from Riverside woodcraft. They do nest boxes and such. But they now make their own hedgehog food. The biscuits are very small, and the hedgehogs seem to like them. I put some cat biscuits and some of the other in each dish.

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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Willpar » Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:04 am

From last night



Quick reverse.

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Placido
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by Placido » Thu Apr 16, 2020 5:09 pm

:laugh: :clap: :nod:

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peregrine
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Re: Your Garden Hedgehogs

Post by peregrine » Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:49 am

It appears that I have four hedgehogs coming into my garden - two large (assume males) and two smaller (assume females). They come in any combination - individually, two, three or four at a time. Last night two females were in feeding. One rolled up in a 'ball' and I wondered why as there didn't seem to be anything else in the garden, Then I saw why. It unrolled and made for the food and immediately the other hedgehog cut it off. It was quite nasty and stopped it getting to the food.
Last edited by peregrine on Fri May 01, 2020 9:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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