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Thank you for your long reply Nic. I agree with you that one’s own enthusiasm may not correlate with what is best for the hedgehog, even though I don’t mean any harm.
Having read Pat Morris´s book on hedgehogs I thought it would be interesting to see which ones return by marking them ( p 117 ), and if it gets run over so I know who it is, but any hedgehog being run over is of course terrible. It would just be nice to know if it’s the one I’ve been feeding or not, but that’s in truth only centered towards my feelings and the hog has of course no use for a blotch of nail polish on its spines and I am not doing a scientific study of any kind.
I think you are right that I should stop feeding it from my hand as it isn’t a pet and should for its own safety not be getting too accustomed to humans.
Putting out food is alright though I hope ? Especially if there is a drought and she will need to conserve enery to be able to give milk to her babies later in the summer – if she is carrying.
Why would you skip giving an egg to a hedgehog once in a while ? Birds eggs make up around 1/8 of their natural diet. The danger with bread and milk seems to be vastly exaggerated besides for babies according to Pat Morris. I mostly just give moist catfood and it is well liked and sometimes I give some dried cat food too. As long as it’s protein based it should be fine I would think. But I am no expert and maybe there are scientists diagreeing with Pat Morris’s take on hedgehogs.
I appreciate your reply however.
Paul