Hedgehog advice (2 living together)

[M3ben]

Good evening all …

Ok where to start last Monday I was outside have a tidy up of my back garden .. I have an old shed with lots of random bits in .. the door for the shed is always open slightly .. as it does not shut .. around 8pm I heard a noice coming from inside the shed I thought it was my cat .. and then all of a sudden a hedgehog walks out 🙂 .. it slowly walked away from the shed and I must say I was fairly shocked but also delighted .. Since this I have been reading a lot online on diets and fresh water for it .. so I was leaving this outside for it .. anyway it has consumed the food and water ..

Today I had to go into the shed and I was aware the hedgehog is likely to be in there considering it has been there everyday since discovering it .. today on closer inspection I noticed that there is actually 2 hedgehogs living in there next to eachother both of them are around the same size I would say they look healthy from the general size of them .. I have noticed one of them has a tick on its side also .. from what I have read it would seem that is it not very usual that two of them live together ?? So I have been double surprised .. they have not particularly made a nest as such they are literally sat on some old plastic sheeting I have in there and that’s covered up with some old compost bags .. I have no issue them staying in there however I’m slightly concerned about them maybe getting into the plastic bags or something bad happening to them .. I also however do not want to disturb or scare the both of them .. any advice on what to do ???

Thanks

[Williamc]

Hogs sleeping in the wrong place can be tricky but one solution I’ve had success with is to give them somewhere far nicer to live that is close by. I had one sleeping under a shrub I wanted to remove so I got a proper hedgehog house, filled it with new hay and hid a couple of small lumps of food in it to persuade it to at least have a look and I put it a few yards away behind another shrub – he/she moved house the next night!

The problem you might have with that is that you have two of the things who might be happy living together at the moment but you’d probably need two houses. It’s unlikely that they’d move into a new place together.

Alternatively, one night when they’ve gone out sort your shed out and replace the plastic bags with something safer. They may not like it and move out anyway; they don’t like having “their stuff” disturbed (just as we don’t!).

[M3ben]

Thankyou for the reply

Last night there was a lot of noise coming from the shed and from videos I have seen online it would seem that they are “courting” this was going on for at least 2 hours .. i will be going out this evening to buy two hedgehog houses and will put them behind the shed and see if they are encouraged to use them instead .. like I said above I’m not fussed them living in the shed if that where they are happy to be that’s ok with me I just want to remove the plastic from in there and have a tidy up and if they still decide to use that area then that is fine with me ..

[Jan-Marie]

Hi M3ben,
noisy little critters under those circumstances aren’t they! Its likely they will breed even if siblings – but once pregnant, the female will be looking for her own safe place away from any males, to give birth and rear the young. I think if she doesn’t inhabit any house you put out immediate – she may well migrate to it in a couple of weeks.
I’m sure you know what to look for in a hog house – but needs to be predator, and draft proof – usually a longish entrance tunnel does this or maze type entrance. BHPS shop have good house options, Hogaloo, which is fairly pricey but an investment. Reject hog house options that use treated wood as they do lick their surroundings and can poison themselves in this way. You could put some hay / straw and twigs in there yourself – but she will like to build her own nest or finish it off herself anyway – they are fussy! keep putting the food and water out over summer months too. Fingers crossed you will see her bringing her babies to the food!

[Author]

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