Hi Annie
Re. the food. I notice in the article Penny posted about not feeding mealworms, etc. that they mention Ark Wildlife Hedgehog Mix, which looks to be very similar to the food I give the hogs. Most of the cats ignore it, but I do sometimes put in some kitten biscuits to help keep their teeth clean(!) and the cats do go for those. The hogs used to leave them, similar to how you described above, but they do seem to have got used to them now. It sounds as if there are a lot of hedgehogs around who would like us to shop at Harrods for them! Not sure the food would be any better for them though.
Haven’t seen Digger, or one of the other females for a few nights. Hope they are ok and that they are not going somewhere where they feed unsuitable food. I suppose it is just possible they are having hoglets already – but it is still early for that. I stayed up late last night and for the last hour and half not a single hedgehog appeared, so that was a waste of time. Haven’t checked the cams yet, but they aren’t behaving very well either – don’t think they liked the rain.
It is also a worry that the hogs might be attacked by the excessive marker. One of the poor boys turned up the other night about half his spines covered in something. In clearly delineated blobs, so couldn’t have been by accident. What are these people thinking. One of the other boys turned up with his face covered in what looked like the same stuff, presumably from biffing a marked hog. I just hope they don’t get hold of Digger, or any of the girls as this stuff could well come off on any hoglets they had. It is sad to see the poor hogs defaced in this way. As if the poor things didn’t have enough to deal with without people doing that to them.
Lots of baby birds have been starting to appear in the garden – the young starlings are particularly making their presence known! One of the male blackbirds is getting very bold again – they often do at this time of year – I suppose desperately trying to feed their babies. He has a way of making sure I know he is there so I give him some more food – got me well trained!
