Hi HeatherG
Welcome to the Forum!
The feeding all sounds brilliant. The only thing I would have suggested is to also provide a source of water outside the feeding station. There is always a risk that they might just have spilt it inside. I usually use large plant saucers dotted around the garden.
However, it would be wrong and possibly not even legal to take a hedgehog with you to your new house. Whilst I understand your feelings, hedgehogs are wild animals. It’s possible that they visit other gardens in the vicinity and other people may consider the same hedgehog to be ‘their’ hedgehog and be very upset if it disappears. In fact hedgehogs don’t belong to anyone or to everyone, however you like to look at it. I prefer to think of them belonging to themselves.
Hedgehogs get to know their home range very well – including sounds and smells, and where is safe. They know the places to go to get food, and the best places to find natural food, build nests, etc. Also that there are other hedgehogs around. If you picked up a hog and put it down somewhere else, it would be like suddenly moving someone to a foreign land where they didn’t know the language. And you cannot keep it in captivity. I repeat – they are wild animals – not pets. However much we may like to think differently, their home range, or surroundings, are far more important to them than we are.
I completely understand how attached we can all become to our prickly visitors. But please don’t think any more about taking the hedgehog with you. For the sake of the hedgehog, you must leave it where it is. Alternatively, try to make your new garden as wildlife friendly as possible to try to encourage a hedgehog from that neighbourhood to visit. For your own peace of mind, you could also, before you go, try to find out whether there are other hedgehog friendly people in the area – neighbours, etc. – bearing in mind that hogs can travel up to 2 miles a night.
Good luck with your move. I hope some hedgehogs come to visit in your new home.
