Feeding station

[Bushsnuffler]

Hi
I have been putting food out for a hedgehog I saw in our back garden but the local cat keeps eating it. I have tried to prevent this by putting it in an upturned storage box with a hole cut in it but the cat still managed to get in. Any suggestions what else I can do?

[Bushsnuffler]

I just looked at the couple of photos in the advice section here. Is a normal drain pipe big enough for a hedgehog to get into? Don’t want them to get stuck, can they squish through smaller spaces than their size ok?

[simbo65]

Hi-
I use a 10cm diameter pipe and they get through fine. Just note- Not all hedgehogs will like it.
There is one that uses it, another that doesn’t.
But worth a try. Fresh water everyday is essential too.

[FuzzyG]

Does anybody have any recommendations for hedgehog food. we used wet cat food and the hogs came a few times but haven’t come since. what else could we try?

[Nic]

Hi FuzzyG

You could try cat/kitten biscuits. I usually give a mix of kitten biscuits and hog food. But make sure you leave plenty of water around – all day every day.

You might find that the hogs were around more to start with to feed up after hibernation and now may be spending more time in other parts of their ranges, so may be back.

Good luck.

[dcw023]

Hello,

I hope this isn’t too off topic…

I have a couple of well used hog feeding stations where I give them Spikes Dinner dry food. I’ve seen some blackbirds sneaking in and pinching the food and flying off, presumably to feed their chicks.

Does anyone know if this is safe for chicks? Could it choke them?

Huge thanks in advance 🙂

[Nic]

Hi dcw023

Sorry no-one has replied sooner. I’m not familiar with Spikes Dinner dry food, so not able to answer your question. I know whole peanuts are bad for birds – because of the choking possibility. You might be better off asking a bird person, but I would explain the size and consistency of the the Spikes, in case they aren’t familiar with it.

Sorry not to be more help.

[Hedgie Lover]

Simbo – you say your pipe is 10cm wide, my feeding station has an entrance of 10cm wide, but a bit higher, than they go through another entrance which is a 4inch square hole (10cm),

So far, it’s managed to keep the cat’s out (as when the hole was 5inch, each day a cat would get in, but with 4inch it’s been successful). However, when I get Walter back from hospital, he is currently 1kg and might get even bigger, will he be able to squeeze through the 4inch holes?

I hope so, or the cat’s will come back.

[simbo65]

Morning-
Firstly great news about Walter and well done on spotting things weren’t right.
I have 2 feed stations. The first from ARK looked great had the tunnel but amazingly a fox got in. I am assuming it was a youngster so we made adjustments with a smaller brick tunnel leading to the house which is now a sleeping house. We built a separate feeding station close by out of brick with a small entrance and another station with a storage box and piping hole. This is 10cm diameter. Hogs have no problems in either- you can see them crouching down to get in. One hog that uses it was also just over 1KG and has no problems.
Good luck and let us know how Walter does.

[Hedgie Lover]

I’m sure he’ll be able to get to his food, it seems it’s the food that he’s most interested in. The hospital said he’s been very laid back about being in hospital, but reckon that might be due to all the food that’s on offer! At least he’s not traumatised by it all, even though he had to endure some medicated baths.

[Bushsnuffler]

Update:
I looked at different types of pipe and found this in Toolstation which I bought to use and I think it would probably work ok but my girlfriend then suggested using a plant pot with the bottom cut out (she had some fairly straight-sided ones, bottom hole 12 cm wide).

The first version the cats still managed to squeeze through so I then taped another plant pot inside the first but sticking out more and this now prevents the cats getting in, although some still try. The cats were scooching in far enough to reach the food but with their back legs still outside so they could drag themselves out backwards. I found the trick is to make the pipe/pot just long enough to make it impossible for them to reach the food. I think some of the more slinky ones could actually still get in but they would have to go all the way in and are intelligent enough to know they may have difficulty getting out again.

I used loads of Gorilla tape to attach the plant pots to the transparent storage box then weighed it down with a heavy fire brick so it couldn’t be moved. I set up 2 wildlife cameras and found out I have a resident hedgy living under our decking so I put the feeding station near the den hole. It’s been working great for the last 2 weeks, the hedgy comes out every night and I get several video clips of it feeding and drinking (wow do they drink!).

There is no obvious way into our garden so I’m not sure how it got in but I have now cut a hole in the fence so it can roam more easily, then a couple of nights ago another hedgehog arrived and tried to get into the feeding station but couldn’t because our resident was already in it. We live in a built up area in Newcastle upon Tyne so I’ve tried my best to make the garden more hedgehog friendly and so far it seems to be paying off.

I’ve made a sort of video collection/diary of my efforts but can’t see a way to upload video or attach pictures to a post so if it’s ok with the admins I’ll put a link to my Youtube channel (I’m not selling anything or advertising anything, it’s just camera clips)

[Author]

Posts