Feeding help
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 days, 11 hours ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hello,
I have a feeding station with a camera and every night have several visitors sometimes two at a time. every night by 2 am all the food and water is gone so any visitors after this have nothing. Do i need to add more bowls of food do you think? there is probably enough room for one extra food bowl. thanksOur little spiky friends should not have to rely on “supplementaries” but as there’s less and less prey naturally I’ve got to 3 feeding stations in the garden with the appropriate meaty cat food out every night with a bit of dried scattered around to make them forage. If you really do want to get up at 2am; they do have a fast metabolism and fill up and evacuate about every 4 hours!
They may well be coming to you first to fill up and then having to find “live” food for the rest of the night. According to the latest research read today in the BHPS news their habits have probably changed towards making a beeline (hogline?) to sources of regular feeding. Whatever you do, don’t forget water!Whilst I agree the hogs should not have to rely on supplementary feeding, the simple fact is the many do, especially when we have hot dry summers and food and water is scarce. The suburban gardens are an important sanctuary for hogs and by offering them a safe place to feed, sleep and breed we can ensure their survival.
We have three feeding stations plus a couple of bowls of food under a garden bench. We get numerous hogs, a couple of local cats and recently a fox. There is often some food left in the mornings and the birds clean that up.
If like us you have cameras out you can judge how much the hogs are eating and how much the birds and other animals are eating. In my experience about a quarter of a mug of dried food is sufficient for each hog.
If you’re really worried about this how about a catbowl that opens on a timer? They’re not too expensive and you usually get two sections that you can set to open at staggered intervals during the night.
Hello! New member please be gentle 🙂
Bumping this thread rather than starting another because it’s basically the same Q / thing.
Four nights ago my garden security light came on and rather than cats/foxes as usual, it was a hedgehog hurrah.
Three nights ago I setup a feeding station (a plastic tub with a hole cut in it and a brick access tunnel in the usual style) and trail cam*, but no repeat visit.
Two nights ago, hedgie was back! Took literally an hour to find his way into the station, I have loads of footage of him walking round and around and climbing over it / trying to burrow in under it, before finding his way in and scoffing. Camera was tripped again an hour later and again another 45mins after that, poss. the same ‘hog possibly different ones. “#2” went straight in, #3 circled a few times.
Last night @00:20, two hogs at the same time! Then over the next three hours a total of seven further visits for food but I don’t know if any/all of them were repeat visits.
All that to say – tonight I plan to put out *much* more food (a mix of wet and dry kitten, and separately plenty of water) given I have at least two visitors but hopefully more. Do I need to worry about overfeeding?? Googling I read somewhere that if a ‘hog gets tubby he will struggle to roll up into a ball and protect himself? But per above responses re- multiple feeding stations, I shouldn’t worry about that and if food is all going (last night plate licked clean, seriously – I wish my boys were the same!) put more out?
Thank you.
*Trail cam already owned because years ago at a previous address I had a regular visiting hedgie until the neighbours parked their dismantled conservatory against the fence he gained access under, and by the time that was removed months later, he’d found somewhere else to forage.
In other news I’ve ordered a coupla hedgehog houses one for each bottom corner of the garden (we have a good sized garden), and my wife thinks I’m O B S E S S E D ha.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
