Reply To: Resident Hedgehogs

[Dave024]

First post .
Over ten years ago I used to notice the security light at the rear coming on when I came home from a night shift, and then a Hedgehog rambling round the garden.
When I retired I rescued a Cairn and knowing how they were escape artists, made the garden Cairn proof , but I’d no worries as he had no interest in getting out.
He passed on and a second little lady Cairn came into our life via rescue.
One night we heard a lot of barking from the rear garden
It was our Cairn alerting us to the presence of something strange -a large hedgehog. No attack-she was too gentle for that ,just barking. Fast forward to last year when the Cairn passed on and a few months later another rescue came into our life. One night we were alerted to the return of the hedgehog.
But this rescue has a high prey drive and started hitting the hedgehog with her paws. Dog removed to house and hedgehog shot off. Every night dog wants out , sometimes there’s the large hedge hog, more often there’s not. I’ve seen it a lot at three in the morning . Even recently. But last night dog was treating the back gate with a lot of attention so I had a look. In the communal passage was a smaller hedge hog. Out of interest I weighed it =circa 400gm. So I seem to have two hedgehogs, possibly a mother and a child.
So Q1 – will they live in proximity without problems and
Q2 – at circa 400g will the smaller one put on enough weight with the proximity of a larger one to let it successfully hibernate or next tme I see it should I take it to local wildlife sanctuary.