Hedgehog found on first floor of house
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Hi,
I am a complete newbie here and I don’t know too much about hedgehogs but I am learning and I do love them. I hope I have posted this in the right place.
About 18months ago (summer time), I woke in the middle of the night to hear scratching down the side of my bed. I was pretty alarmed as I sat up. It was dark and I couldn’t see clearly what it was. I turned the lamp on and my husband and I were totally confused to see a hedgehog trying to hide by my bedside table.
We have an ensuite and the window in there was open. This window is a velux on a sloping roof and our garden has high walls around it. In order for the hedgehog to have fallen in the window, he would have had to navigate along a long peice of guttering and then walk up a slate tiled roof about 2 metres and then dropped in the window.
There were no droppings anywhere at all, so it hadn’t been there long and I don’t think it would have come up the stairs as we had 3 dogs at the time and while they wouldn’t be brave enough to get too close, there would have been an almighty commotion should it have wandered in.
It can only have come through this window but are hedgehogs climbers? Would this be possible?
Since that day, we have both been totally confused and when we tell our friends they just say “How could that have happened?!”. We would love to know if this sort of thing happens or if it is possible they can climb well.
Thanks in advance!Hi Snorey
Welcome to the Forum.
What an interesting tale! I can only imagine how alarming that must have been in the middle of the night! I can’t really comment on the actual circumstances of the access to your house (not being familiar with it) but can say that some hogs are surprisingly good at climbing. Why it would have wanted to, is another matter! But some hogs do seem to like to keep us guessing. Climbing up the stairs sounds an easier option, other than the dogs, especially if it is carpeted. Any chance it could have got in whilst the dogs were out for a walk, or similar?
Hi Nic,
Thanks for taking the time to reply!Well I would like to think maybe we left the door open, but our bedroom is the furthest point in the house from the back door (quite a large place) and there were no droppings anywhere.
It certainly is a mystery! No doubt I will never know which is a shame I would like to know what brought it in.
Thanks again Nic.
:):)
We used to have a Staffordshire bull terrier that would bring home hedgehogs on a nightly basis from the surrounding fields. She wouldn’t hurt them, just herself in the process and she would leave them wherever we were.
i.e. if we were upstairs, so was her offerings.
As I have had some experience of hedgehogs climbing upstairs, it isn’t impossible that it came in through the back door when you weren’t looking and hid somewhere and then when all was quiet he came out and headed up your staircase.
As for droppings, hedgehogs tend to only poop shortly after they’ve eaten. If it had been locked in your house by accident and hadn’t had anything to eat, it wouldn’t have left you a present lol
Sadly, once a hog has been in a dog’s mouth, it’s quite likely that it will have a skin puncture somewhere – not always easy to see. – So if something similar happens to anyone else, it’s probably a good idea to get any hog which has been in a dog’s mouth, checked over by an expert in the hope that it doesn’t go on to develop an infection.
But yes, hogs could easily get upstairs, once they were in a house. Also re. the poos. Whilst feeding areas have a reputation for having loads of hog poos around, if a hog is there alone, it may not necessarily poo there at all. So they are not all constantly pooing! But also if the hog got into the house in the evening/early night, which seems most likely, it may not have eaten since the previous night.
Still, somewhat disconcerting waking up to unexpected noises in the middle of the night! Not the best experience for a good night’s sleep, even if a relief to see it was only a hog!
This came up in another forum I’m on where someone discovered a hedgehog in a bedroom and the only way it could have got in was up the stairs. They also had dogs, which alerted them that something was not quite normal but the dogs themselves couldn’t have brought it in. Hedgehogs are surprisingly good climbers so the average staircase to a reasonable sized hog wouldnt be an issue but to get all the way up undiscovered is pretty good going. Hogs in stealth mode 🙂
At 1am thos morning my dog was crying and going back and forth on landing. When i investigated a hedgehog was sitting outside bathroom door.
I cant understand how he got through a dog door and up the stairs.
I was really surprised. I have 2 cats and a dog.It’s a curious and unusual situation. Hedgehogs aren’t known for climbing, so the circumstances of one ending up in your home via a high window are indeed perplexing. Sometimes nature surprises us with its mysteries. If you encounter such a situation again, safely guiding the hedgehog back outside or seeking expert help is the way to go.
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