I’m not sure I’m posting this under the right subject heading, but I hope it will be alright.
I’ve had a hedgehog in the vicinity since late July and it has come back to our garden almost every night as I have been putting out catfood for it. I made a shelter for it with some slabs of marble which I had lying around, mostly for him to have some privacy when eating.
I later bought a plastic box container and cut out a 10x10cm square at the bottom so the magpies wouldn’t eat its food. ( Got the idea from someone here at the forum -thanks ! )
I have become quite infatuated with it and consequently bought a hedgehog house which I filled with some leaves, moss, grass and two pages of a newspaper which I tore up strips.
Last Thursday ( 21st ) I collected some twigs and small branches to cover the house with for the winter. I opened the house then to check if anyone was there and he/she had rolled himself into the bedding material and was well tucked in. I wasn’t certain it was there but when I carefully poked around a little with my finger I heard a growling noise, so I quickly put the roof back on and let it be.
The last time I saw him out was last Friday evening ( 22nd ) and it hasn’t touched the food I put out since then. Today I opened the house again but I never poked around but just closed it again. It looked like it could be in the rolled up ball of the bedding material. I covered the house with twigs, tarpaulin, fern fronds and spruce branches today so it is well insulated if there will be a cold winter and no rain/snow will seep through to the house.
I made sure there was no obstruction of the ventilation-holes on the long side of the house though. Now I will just leave it be until spring 2018 and hopefully it will have had a good long sleep.
My questions now are:
Could the hedgehog have started its hibernation already ? I mean we haven’t even had frost yet.
Will it be sleeping all winter or is it possible that it will wake up after a couple of months ? I suppose it all depends on the weather.
It’s a juvenile born this year so maybe it’s a bit inexperienced about going into hibernation, or could it be that it feels so well fed that it is just wasting energy searching for food as it’s soon getting colder ? It’s actually smart !?
I should probably mention too that this is a Swedish hedgehog from Norrkoping in southern Sweden.
Sincerely,
Paul Olsson
