All you want to know about hedgehogs....

Have a look at this
Should I clean my hedgehog house? - Hedgehog Street

The hedgehog house in my garden is tucked right away in a corner and is quite difficult to access. My OH managed to extract it one year, and when it was opened there was a sleeping occupant. He just moved the box into a sheltered spot and left it. The next morning I checked again and the resident had vacated the premises, so we were able to clean it out and return it to its original location.

 

@AnniD Fab, thank you for the link and reassuring to hear your experience. I would hate for it to feel scared or threatened

 

Something lived in the hedgehog box over winter but I never saw a hedgehog. When I last looked there was what looked like a pigeon poo in there but I checked again and there are now some leaves in there on top of the existing "nest" - I hope it isn't a rat!

 

I'm not 100% sure @Jazmine, but l would say it's more likely to be a hedgehog if the latest addition is leaves. We opened the box one year to find a Tesco crisp packet on the top of all the leaves. Extra insulation perhaps.

I think a lot of people assume that the same hedgehog uses the box night after night, but it's more like a game of musical chairs and a box can remain unused for several weeks before a new resident arrives

 

Love the crisp packet AnnieD - would be funny to see a hedgehog carrying a crisp packet! I will take a photo of mine and see if I can upload it here! Hedgehogs are so interesting.

 

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I’ve been feeding hedgehogs in our garden ever since we moved here 4 years ago and film them with a wildlife camera.
Until recently the only unwanted visitors have been the odd mouse or two, which I don’t mind but last week I filmed a rat going into the feeding station. It returned the next night with a smaller rat, not sure if it was a youngster or Mrs Rat, and they spent some time in the feeding station.
So I’ve got a dilemma now as I certainly don’t want to be feeding rats or encouraging rats in the garden, but I want to feed the hedgehogs. A couple of years ago I spotted a couple of rats in the garden and filmed them going in and out of my wooden compost bin, so reluctantly we dismantled it, we also put squirrel baffles on the bird feeding station and I didn’t see them on the camera again.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can feed the hedgehogs but not the rats?

 

It's practically impossible to prevent rats from entering a hedgehog feeding station @CatDouch , but there are several different things you could try such as putting food out earlier and taking it in just before you go to bed.
Another theory is that rats prefer to stay under cover as much as possible, so if you can move your feeding station somewhere more exposed such as the middle of the lawn, that might help.
It might also be worth stopping the feeding for a few days in the hope that the rats move on.
What sort of food do you put out ?

 

Hi @AnniD thanks for replying. I feed the hedgehogs Tesco Kitten dry food, chicken and rice. I haven’t put any food out for the last week as like you said I’m hoping the rats will move on.
I put my camera out last night and didn’t see any rats in the garden so perhaps I’ll start feeding again tonight. At the moment the hedgehogs aren’t appearing in my garden until about 10.30 pm so it would be difficult to take it in as I’m already in bed! They normally then visit every few hours during the night.
Luckily for the hedgehogs my neighbour provides an excellent menu for the hedgehogs so I don’t think they will have been going hungry whilst my cafe has been temporarily closed.

 

That's good to hear @CatDouch. Fingers crossed that the rats have moved on, for now at least .

 

As rats don't like change or being too much in the open there are 2 things you could try.
1. Move the feeding station around to a different position every night (the hedgehogs will still find it!).
2. Throw food onto the lawn or scatter around about dusk,the hedgehogs will still find it although you may have problems with other animals.

 

I seem to be rat free again! Apparently my neighbour had set up a new bird feeder just the other side of our fence and bird food was dropping on the floor which attracted rats. She’s now removed it and I’ve put my hedgehog feeding station back out, my camera hasn’t shown any rats for the last 10 days so hopefully they’ve moved on @AnniD @madpenguin

 

Thought I would share this post from my local hedgehog rescue. It might be pertinent if any members are having any gardening work done over the Summer.

"Another 10 admissions today including a nest attack, many people don’t realise that a male hedgehog will attack a nest and injure/kill the off spring in an attempt to mate with mum!
Nest disturbances are happening now with garden work being done, things being moved, decking/sheds replaced etc, so please be aware that you could be disturbing a nest, please contact your local rescue for advice if you do disturb a nest as the advice will vary depending on the situation, the age of the hoglets, and any future plans in the nest site.

 

Just to give you all an idea of what the local rescue has to deal with in just one day.

"Just finished at the rescue after 14 admissions today ! The crazy summer season has hit like it has never hit before.
We have 61 hedgehogs in the rescue and 80% are hoglets. Had we still been in the building in the garden, we would have been full. But since moving we have increased our capacity.

Sadly the order on the new cages has fallen through due to no completion date on cages ordered in June 2023 and more in November 2023, so we are currently in talks with a different company , we have the space for more cages we just need to get them.

Of the 14 that arrived today most were hoglets. It started with 2 from Lydney, and admissions included hogs from Hucclecote, Brockworth, Barnwood, Newent, Leckhampton , Longlevens, Cheltenham, Churchdown and Tredworth.

One little man was brought in after he was found covered in mud and soaking wet, he had been trapped somewhere in mud and water, the skin on his feet is peeling off and his nose is bleeding after the top layers of his nose skin has also peeled away, we’re keeping everything crossed for him.

Just an idea of how long things take on an average day at the moment during our busiest time to date.
Hand feeding hoglets 5-6 hours per day
Morning clean out etc - 10-12 hours per day
Admissions are usually 20 minutes for a straightforward case or 1-2 hours if removing maggots and flystrike, so for the 14 today that’s a total of 6-7 hours.
Vet runs and hedgehog collections can take several hours out of the day especially if multiple trips to the vets, this morning 2 were taken in and a 3rd taken this evening, 1 is already on the list and it’s taxi booked for the morning.

Working in the rescue at the moment can start as early as 5am and tonight was a 10.30pm finish. We man our phones every day between 8am and 7pm and at the moment we can be taking multiple calls every hour through the day, these can be general questions, hedgehogs needing help in our area, hedgehogs needing help in other areas and lots of calls about hedgehogs out in the day that we can advise to be monitored.
When calling about a hedgehog we will ask a number of questions to enable us to give the relevant advice for that hedgehog, some we can say leave her, others we ask to be monitored and the rest we ask to come in."

If you can support your local rescue, please think about doing so. If you are unable to volunteer in person, then donations of food are always very welcome and there are all sorts of other items required.

Thanks for reading. I know it's a very long post, but it's appreciated that you took the time .

 

Apparently there a lot of hedgehogs coming into the rescue with injuries caused by fighting. A fair bit of this occurs in or around feeding stations, so the latest advice is to have 2 entrances if possible, so that one can be used as an exit if one hog feels really threatened.

I have seen pushing and shoving inside and outside my feeding station on several occasions, and whilst it can seem quite funny, our spiky friends can become very vicious.