Midnight visitor

[smiffy49er]

Very cute, Dan. Hope he ate some slugs if you have any. And Smiffy, how are they noisy?

They snort a lot and just seem to blunder into whatever is in their way.
When we have the patio doors open at night we know as soon as they are in the garden

[paintinglemonjane]

I thought this too, untill I started reading up on hedgehogs. This is from one of the hedgehog rescue sites:


Gardeners wrongly think having hedgehogs in the garden is all they need to keep the slug and snail population down.

• Hedgehogs mainly eat beetles and caterpillars, not slugs and snails
• The idea that they only eat slugs and snails is very wrong. Only approximately 5% of their diet naturally will be slugs or snails.
• ·They will only eat a lot of slugs and snails when they are starving and no other food is available.
• A hedgehog that is forced to rely only on slugs and snails will not survive long.

Offering a hedgehog additional food is the best thing for the hedgehog.

Slugs and snails are the primary carriers for the lungworm which is the biggest killer of hedgehogs except for us and our careless behaviour.

When the lungworms breed inside the hedgehog they rapidly multiply, fill the hedgehog's lungs and the hedgehog either dies from drowning (Pneumonia) or bleeding from the lungs.

Hedgehogs with lungworms have terrible breathing problems, are very thin and underweight, often have bad diarrhoea and will have secondary bacterial infections. Once the worms are well established the hedgehog coughs like an old smoker and gasp for air before dying in agony. Post mortem examinations often show the lungs as a solid mass with very little lung tissue left.

Oh I am going to keep a not of this.
We have hedgehogs come to visit come winter.

I nearly stood on one last year on my doorstep.

[ruthiewildchild]

I tried that. I made one out of some spare bricks but they didn't seem to like it (or it was too expensive to eat there.

Attachment 13442

Attachment 13443

Mel thats fantastic - love it.

[ruthiewildchild]

This is my work mates hedgehog house. He had a hedgehog move in about 2 days after he built it. He put food in the entrance to entice the hoggy in, after that it needed no encouragement

[ruthiewildchild]

And here is my work mates night visitors - if you have sound you can hear just how noisey they are Wonderful little animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOYhox-OLbI

[DanTheMan3]

Thanks everyone for your interest and advice.
The Hedgehog Hilton will be opening this weekend.

And there will be some special delights added to the menu.

.

[TiasTreasures]

He's really adorable. We don't have them here. Do they get tame? I suppose you can't pet them, those look like sharp spines. Or are they just very coarse fur?

[lilused]

What can you feed hedgehogs?

[terry5732]

The first one showed up about a month ago
Biggest I've ever seen
The little one last week
Dumb as rocks

[GibsonsCamp]

Goodness, we have wildlife, deer, skunk, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, porcupine, beaver, black bear, fox, mountain lion, coyote, elk, grouse, quail, duck, geese, turkeys, doves, rabbits, bobcats, badger, eagles, vultures, owl, bats (which use my front porch as a race track) and well you get the idea, darn near everything except hedgehogs and I just a soon they all stay across the street or farther.

The herbivores eat my plants, the predators eat my animals, and the pests are pests. Basically, they do what they are ment to do.

Don't get me wrong I love to look at them and I have a live let live philosophy, but I don't get warm and cuddle with them