Hog female moving in
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During the warmer weather I have my French doors open 24/7 for cooling and to allow my 2 cats unfettered movement.
An unexpected bonus has been visitations by a hedgehog family, who come in quite fearlessly of an evening and trundle all over the flat, eating spare cat food and exploring.
They are extremely charming and seem completely unworried by my presence.
The family seems to be a very large male, 2 smaller females and a couple of young hoglets (a recent addition)
My concern is that, now The weather is turning, I’ll have to close the French doors. I’m building a hog house to put in the garden and plan to keep them all fed, but it appears that one of the females may have moved in with me and lives under my kitchen cabinets where part of the baseboard is missing. I’m worried that this may not be good for her and that she will be isolated from the other hogs. I cannot get under the kitchen cabinets as they are built in. Any advice would be appreciated.Hi Olimonster
Your instinct is right. It is definitely not good for a hedgehog to take up residence in a human home. It seems unlikely that she will have hibernated yet, so she must be coming out for food and water. Are you absolutely certain she is in there? Has she taken any nesting material in etc.? Having first checked that she is not giving/has not given birth there, if it was me, I would try to temporarily place a hedgehog house near to the entrance to your home and when she is out and about, move her to the hog house, so that she knows where she is. You can then move the hog house to a more suitable location later when she has vacated it.
With regard to the ‘family’, hedgehogs do not live in families as we may perceive them. The Mother is solely responsible for rearing the youngsters and the ‘Father’ is unlikely to even recognise his offspring. One litter can have more than one ‘Father’. It seems likely that the adult hogs have just all gone into the house by chance.
Whilst it may be charming to have the hedgehogs trundling around your home, it is really better from them if they can be trundling around out of doors, foraging for food. There is also the possibility in someone’s home that they may pick up and eat something which is totally unsuitable for them. Also, it is not good for hedgehogs to become too habituated to humans. Not all humans love hedgehogs and it might make them become less wary of other predators – for we, whether we like it or not, are predators. So my feeling is that, next year, it would be a good idea to deter the hedgehogs from going into your home. I am sure you will be able to enjoy their visits just as much if not more, in a more natural environment for them.
Good luck. I hope you manage to solve the problem of the hog in your kitchen.
You’re right, she isn’t hibernating, she comes out to forage in the evening. As i said, I’m building a hog house so will try to pick her up (carefully) and introduce her to it.
As to the family thing, that was just my shorthand and based on discussions with neighbours. They all move around separately apart from the female with the hoglets.
The numbers are my best guess based on sightings, individual markings etc.
Not sure how to deter them from coming in next year as, like I said, the cats need access. I’m sure I’ll think of something.
Thanks for the response.
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