Thank you Nic. I had a chat with one neighbour this morning and it turns out that they too are feeding ‘our’ hedgehog. We think it’s the same one as apparently it comes through our hedge to them. I thought that was very funny and explains the huge poo it left us the other day. At least there is no chance of it being short of food if I don’t feed it.
I have now taken the food dish out of the hogilo and found a temporary shelter for it nearby. It’s actually a potting tray which is leaning at an angle of 45 degrees resting on a firm surface and where I had first found the hedgehog sheltering about 2 months ago though it had climbed inside a plastic bag where I was storing my cardboard and paper to go into the compost bin. It was curled up asleep and very dry but I thought it was dead! I have moved out the bags now and put a feeding dish underneath with the water dish nearby. I will think of a more permanent solution but this will do for now as it’s a big tray and the food should stay dry.
As for the hogilo and the damp hay well, I think I will be reported to the hedgehog authorities for being a bad landlord re his/her housing debacle. I was pretty sure that the hedgehog had departed from it, maybe scared off by the noisy tree cutters the other day (and me lifting the hogilo to get the food dish out). I gently checked and the hog had gone, so have removed all the damp hay and put a little dry hay back in with a bit outside too, and done a double cover on the top of the hogilo with an empty compost bag to ensure it doesn’t get so wet in there again. Everything is sopping wet in our garden from the constant rain, but we are supposed to have a break from it now.
Meanwhile I will buy a little wooden house too as I still think that might be useful for either our hedgehog or a 2nd one maybe since the hogilo will no doubt rot quite quickly in our weather down here.
