Help!

[Prof]

Please help! I installed two solar lights near “my” hedgehog’s feeding box and I have seen my hedgehog twice. I heard and saw two hedgehogs mating on Sunday. I saw my hedgehog on Monday evening but I have not seen him since. Where is he? Why has he stopped coming to his box? Will I see him again? How can I encourage him to return?

[Sammy9]

Im the same they were feeding like mad then nothing

[Nic]

Hi Prof and Sammy9

There are all sorts of hazards out there for hedgehogs, so you can never be sure, but it is quite normal for hedgehogs not to visit every night. The males tend to have bigger ranges than the females, so may be visiting another part of their range. Or they may be off somewhere courting other females. There are males which I was seeing fairly regularly earlier in the year who I often don’t see for days, or weeks at a time. Then they might suddenly turn up again. The females, if they have hoglets, often disappear for a while – sometimes as much as a couple of weeks.

They will know you are there so, all being well, will likely return when they are ready. I know it is always a bit of a worry, but there isn’t really anything much you can do other than what you probably are doing – providing food and water, creating a good habitat for them, etc. The better you can make the habitat in your garden, the more likely you will get more hogs visiting.

I hope they return soon – you never know, maybe with hoglets?

[Hogmeister]

Hi Prof and Sammy9,

Same thing here I haven’t seen a hog for over 2 weeks………..until tonight hooray :).

As I record my sightings I know the exact same thing happened in 2015, also in July through to August, but then the gap was over 4 weeks so this is a quick return! However in 2016 the sightings were pretty much continuous from April until November and I had a lot more hog activity as well in terms of numbers and even a couple of hoglets. – none so far this year.

As Nic says your hogs may be off doing other things at the moment but I hope they come back and pay you a visit real soon.

[moatel]

I have 2 regular hogs one which is the smaller seems to have worked out that it needs to get to the food first before the larger one arrives later and pushes the smaller one away, could this be male and female? a couple of nights I have had 4 come to feed as well

[Nic]

Hi moatel

It is not possible to reliably tell male from female by their size. I find, here, usually, that the females are happy to share a bowl with another female (although not always) or sometimes a male. The males will not normally share a bowl with another male unless it is a youngster. The females will also share with a youngster. So my guess would be that it is not a male and female. A slightly more reliable way to tell, is if you see males and females interacting. The male will often begin to circle the female during courtship. She will turn round, huffing as she goes, and keeping her head towards him.

Nice to hear that you have had 4 hogs visiting. I hope you continue to enjoy watching their activities.

[Author]

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