I’ve 3 feeding-stations around my garden.
I place a straw across the entrance that gets knocked out of the way when a hedgehog enters.
I’ve also got a trail-cam which is sometimes used to check up on the hedgehogs, and sometimes to see what is going on with my fox visitors.
So, I have a fairly good idea of what is going on in the garden when I’m in bed.
Over the last few weeks the hedgehogs are feeding much less on the tinned cat food in jelly. (Having reduced the amount I put out in response, I also offer a dish of hedgehog biscuits and another of cat biscuits so they have food if their appetite returns, but I find they usually ignore dried food in my garden).
One feeding-station also stopped having customers altogether for a few days when a hedgehog I’d been seeing regularly disappeared (I knew where she was living), along with another visitor to that station I also haven’t seen for a while.
But I now seem to have another visiting that station.
I had the trail-cam there to check on who was dropping in the night before last. The hog went in about midnight, checked out the 3 dishes on offer and exited without eating. I’m thinking they are now finding plenty of tasty beetles etc in the garden (which I manage mainly to attract insects and other wildlife), and therefore in no need of very much supplementary feeding.
Just under 3 hours later and another hedgehog (could have been the same one) went in and polished off the wet cat-food.
So, it’s all gone a bit unpredictable lately with familiar hogs gone missing, less food being taken, but still plenty of hog-activity in the garden. I’m assuming it is all connected with babies, territorial exploration, abundant natural food now, and the weather generally (I’m in Kent).
