Can hedgehogs coexist with rats?

[Leando]

I have been watching my hedgehogs with a bushnall camera and I’ve seen rats going into the feeding station with the hedgehogs.
Now they are beginning to hibernate I was worried that the rats might be using the hedgehog houses so set up the camera outside the house to see what was going on. Last night I saw a hedgehog and a rat inside the house!
I’m not sure what to do about this. Any advice?

[Nic]

Hi Leando

I suspect many people have rats passing through their gardens, but they don’t know anything about them, until/unless they get night cameras. If the hog has been using the nest to go in and out of in between feeding, it’s likely that it will have a hibernation nest elsewhere.

I had a hog who built a nest in a feed box a couple of years ago. It actually didn’t hibernate at all, but used the nest for occasional day stays and also naps between snacks. But obviously had another nest elsewhere because it didn’t stay every day. Eventually a rat did begin to use the nest as well, although, as far as I know, not the same time as the hog. I don’t imagine it’s very comfortable sleeping next to a curled up hog with it’s spines sticking out! As I recall the hog pretty much gave up day stays about that time. Hogs, or that particular hog, it seemed was a cleaner animal than the rat.

You can’t evict the hog, but you may like to take steps to deter the rats from visiting. There have been various discussions about rats at various times. Here are some links – there is likely some repetition, but I’ll give you all the links:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/hedgehogs-and-rats/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-2/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-3/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rats-4/
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-poison/

Hope you find something helpful.

[Author]

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