Hedgehog – Advice Needed

[wuzzie]

We were thrilled to discover a hedgehog nesting in an outbuilding where a brick was missing. We have been leaving it fresh water and a few dog biscuits when it appears. However, our delight quickly turned to dismay when we discovered three deads hoglets which had been killed and eaten. We do not have cats visiting the garden and are quite close to Winchester town centre so we are ruling out foxes which only leaves rats. Does anyone have any advice on how we can keep our hedgehog and any future hoglets safe? We can’t put down poison as this would potentially harm the hedgehog. Also I’m assuming that any hedgehog house would also let in rats. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Kitty878]

Hi! Cats don’t generally bother hedgehogs in any case. Urban foxes get everywhere but I’m not sure they could get into the outbuilding, unless there’s a very large hole in the wall.

I’m sorry to hear about the babies, it must have been very upsetting. Unfortunately it’s not uncommon, the mortality rates for hoglets are awful.

When I discovered the body of one of the baby hedgehogs living in my garden, Nic advised that it was probably not killed by another animal, but died of natural causes and may have sustained post mortem injuries by scavenging animals who went to eat it- possibly even other hedgehogs, who will eat carrion. I don’t know if losing three at the same time reduces the chance of death by natural causes, possibly there was a virus going around or they were just unlucky.

In terms of controlling the rat population, you are right that poison is not safe, and rat traps are also extremely dangerous for hogs. I’m sorry to not be able to give you better information- there are experts on here who may be better placed to advise

[Nic]

Hi wuzzie

So sad to hear about the hoglets. That must have been very distressing for you.

I wouldn’t think living near Winchester would rule out foxes. These days, it seems, you are more likely to see foxes in towns than in the country.

There are things you can do to deter rats, such as fill in bolt holes scare them away every time you see them, etc. Mainly to make sure they can’t find any food. There’s no point them visiting if they can’t access any food. But have you actually seen any rats?

This old post has some links of other old posts re. rats which might have something that you find useful: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/rat-probelm/

[Kitty878]

It’s definitely true about the foxes. I live in a large city and see foxes fairly often on the grassy spaces around my home. I even picked one up to take to the vet, the poor thing was lying stunned in the road after having been hit by a car. He was absolutely fine, fortunately, but I’ve wondered ever since how I was even able to lift him, they’re really big up close!

[Kitty878]

Nic, can you confirm if, in your experience, rats are definitely directly dangerous to hedgehogs, as in killing it injuring them rather than just feeding on a dead hedgehog or moving into a hedgehog house? I’ve heard rumours of such, but given the enormous numbers of rats that live in this country, if they were regularly killing hogs the poor hogs would be extinct by now. Plus hogs come with some pretty impressive built in armour, which I would have thought would have defeated a rat, although I suppose young babies might me more vulnerable? Sorry wuzzie, I can understand why you came to the conclusion that rats had killed the baby hedgehogs, but looking at the posts it seems far more people have issues with rats eating the food left out for the hogs, rather than a direct attack on hogs or hoglets. Given the issues with poison and trapping, I suspect humans trying to kill rats may be responsible for more hedgehog deaths than the actual rats are.

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