Has my Hedgehog given birth?

[Steph55]

Hi – the week of 3rd July this year I caught my Hedgehog gathering leaves and building a nest in the Hedgehog house in our garden. Very exciting! I understand that they make their nests quite close to giving birth – is that correct? I leave my night camera out to track activity and have noticed, over the last few nights, my Hedgehog going in and out of the house every few minutes, for about 40 mins, which is quite unusual. Do you think she is feeding young? I haven’t seen any Hoglets on the camera though and wasn’t sure if they should be out by now? Thanks

[Nic]

Hi Steph55

Yes, female hogs do tend to make their nests near to the time of giving birth. But there is usually a fair amount of nest building activity, often early in the morning. Although, males will take small amounts of material into nest boxes which they sleep in too. So it depends how much nesting activity you were seeing.

Sorry, I could only surmise as to why a hog would be going in and out of a house like that. Sadly not all hoglets born make it out into the world (it is one of the most difficult times of a hog’s life), but fingers crossed, if there were indeed hoglets in the hog house, you will be seeing them now. Hoglets are big enough for foraging trips with Mother hog at 3 or 4 weeks old, so if there were hoglets they should be venturing out by now. It’s a few days since your post – maybe you’ve seen something since?

Let us know if there are any developments. Good luck.

[Steph55]

Thanks for the response Nic. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any hoglets or even the hedgehog – they have not made an appearance around the hog house at all over the last week since my post! Maybe it was a male just building up a nest for sleeping as you suggest.

I’m sure they’ll be back and maybe I’ll just have wait until next year for some hoglets to appear!

[Author]

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