Daylight sightings
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Normally I have been putting down hedgehog food and setting up my wildlife camera just before dusk, but last weekend I was out all day so had to put out the food and camera at 9am. Much to my surprise I captured hogs feeding during the day including at 11am and noon time. Since then I have regularly been putting down the food in the morning and capturing many more daytime sightings, including three at once yesterday. It would appear that some of them are resident in my hedgehog house as they go into the hedgehog house straight after feeding. It is hard to tell definitively but I suspect that they are juvenile hogs and having food available 24/7 right outside the hedgehog house is too good to miss even if it is not night-time!
Hi ,
Are you seeing more than one going into the house ? They usually only share a house when they are very young plus if they are still feeding during the day they may be too young and small to survive the winter .
Hopefully someone on here can give you advice but if it was me I would give the nearest rescue a ring and ask them if you should be concerned .
Dear Gr8mums,
I am ‘seeing’ lots of hogs (both adult and juvenile) via my wildlife camera going in and out of the hedgehog house. Most of the juveniles are a reasonable size and visibly have grown in the last few weeks, and they seem happy to snuggle together, although at the moment the straw in the house completely covers the space in the sleeping area and I assume that the hogs have buried themselves under the straw.
Hi Stevey
They normally only come out in the day if they are very hungry. That fits in with what I recall from your previous post. It sounds to me as if you need to have a weighing session. The recommended weight needed to survive hibernation is 450g. If the hogs are over 450g I recommend, if you haven’t already, that you get more feeding dishes and spread them out a bit so that all the hogs can get the opportunity to have enough food during the hours of darkness. Whilst it might be nice for us to see them, it’s not a good thing for hogs to become used to venturing out during daylight.
Before you weigh them, I would do as Gr8mums suggests and find your local rescue. (BHPS 01584 890801 will be able to tell you). Your local rescue will be able to advise you re. the local weather conditions, etc. and ideally you need to know someone can take them in, if any are under-weight. Sometimes if a hog is only a bit under the 450g and is being provided with supplementary food, they suggest leaving it be, as it’s very stressful for hogs being taken into captivity (and it is not a guarantee that the hog will survive) – it depends a bit on local weather.
Personally, I don’t normally recommend leaving food right outside a nest box, because it can attract predators, other possibly unwanted hogs, etc., but in the circumstances you have now, I would leave it where they know where it is until they hibernate – if they do.
If any hogs do have to go away for over-wintering, make sure you can have them back to release where they came from. Please see https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BHPS-Guidance-For-relasing-Rehabilitated-Hedgehogs.pdf and pass a copy on, if necessary.
I just asked about them sharing a box as i had some hoglets earlier in the summer , and they only stayed together for a short time . Hedgehogs normally live on their own , so I thought it might be a way to try and judge their age . If they are snuggled up together it would be logical to assume they are very young and without the help an experienced rescue they will be unlikely to survive the winter .
Yes, you’re right, Gr8mums. But, also when we get to this time of year, there is the possibililty that Mum has gone off to hibernate before the youngsters have gone their separate ways. But hogs do make multiple visits to feeding stations, and it is also possible that some of the hogs going into the box are the same one. It seems cameras are better at picking them up going in than coming out. It is very difficult to assess the size/age of hoglets just by looking at them, even for experienced hog watchers, and the only really reliable way is to weigh them.
My hogs are still out and about and they seem to be eating well. The house is now full of leaves and bedding – and , I assume, also a hog as the entrance now seems to be blocked! I have put lots of leaves around it and under the trucks of the shrubs nearby just in case other hogs need a place to stay! The hogs seem to be a good size, not fully grown but well covered. Its still not very cold – no frost yet – so maybe they are having a last supper.
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