Just out of hibernation
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During the winter my gardens has been relandscaped . I put the hedgehog house in an area not to be disturbed and it wasn’t. I as pretty sure a hog was in there. In the last couple of weeks my dog has become very interested in the house again after leaving it alone all winter. Yesterday was alerted to furious barking to find her confronting a sleepy hog at the entrance/exit of the house. I pulled her off and sent her inside – no more garden off lead for her! The hog was later seen on camera nosying around the feeding station so seemed unharmed by the encounter. It is a bit small though so have left food out.
Hi PamSue
How lovely seeing the sleepy hedgehog post hibernation! And lucky that you left the hog house in an undisturbed place. Sounds very sensible to keep your dog on the lead. Hopefully your dog didn’t actually bite the hog, but if a dog does actually bite a hog, it’s best to get the hog checked over by a hog carer/rehabilitator, as dog bites (which can be very difficult to see on a hog) can lead to nasty infections.
Hopefully the hog remained unscathed and is fit and well. After hibernation, it’s so lovely hearing a hog snuffling around again! Lucky you – no hogs back, here, yet. I hope the little hog has a successful season.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
The dog got the worst of it. I think she tried to pat it and got spiked. She is still curious but giving it a wider berth. Caught the hog on camera an hour later and then popping in and out of the house and feeding station over the following two nights certainly looking non the worse for the encounter. Has not emerged over the last two though so maybe gone back into the house for a bit more shuteye!
Any ideas please. My garden landscape is now finished and I relocated the hedgehog house back to being behind the shed. It was empty – the resident leaving in March. I got the builders to create two hedgehog holes and put the feeding station by the holes. I am pleased to say lots of hedgehog sightings since then. Since daylight is lasting here until 10pm little problems with having my predator dog out at the same time as the hedgehog.She knows it is around though but so far it has been OK keeping them separate. But as the nights draw in from July I need to be a bit more proactive. I can fence off the hole, feeding station and house quite easily so keeping the predator dog who wants to kill the hog away but I am having difficulty finding a garden railing fencing solution that has 13 cm gap underneath to allow the hog through but will stop the dog from getting to the hog house. So many ideas please!
Think I solved the problem. Found some climber trellis panels at the garden centre that had 6inch square holes at the bottom, big enough for a hog ( and as I later saw on video a cat) to squeeze through but effectively deters the dog from accessing the hedgehog house. Last nights video showed the hog coming through fine , accessing the feeding station then returning through the trellis to their hole. They don’t seem to have noticed the bale of straw and the house yet.
Hi PamSue
Glad to hear you have had lots of hedgehog sightings.
Sounds as if you have found a good solution to the fenced off area. Please be very careful, though, as if the hog can get through into the dog part of the garden it could still be at risk and I’m sure a confrontation is the last thing you want. I know how distressing a dog attack can be – someone else’s dog got into my garden once and fatally wounded one of my hog visitors.
There are some tips in this link of how to avoid a confrontation:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pets-and-hedgehogs/Don’t worry too much if the hogs haven’t shown any interest in the house yet. Sometimes they need to get used to them being there for a while before venturing to use them. Putting a handful of leaves inside can give them the idea. Let us know if one takes up residence.
Hope all goes well.
The trellis is working well. Hogs merrily coming through from 10.30 pm to about 3 am when dogs safely tucked up in bed! Two yesterday with a little altercation at the hedgehog hole as the second one tried to come through. How do I upload video? Have several of hogs coming through the highway hole in the fence then the trellis and off into cleaning up my garden!
Hi PamSue
Glad to hear that the hogs have found some safe times for themselves, whilst the dogs are out of the way. It’s brilliant that they have accepted the trellis so well.
There is some information re. uploading videos here: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/my-hedgehog-street/your-hedgehog-videos/
Once video is somewhere on the internet, you can add the link here. Just be aware that the Forum doesn’t normally like more than one link per post – but you can always send more than one post. I usually make sure there are some words as well in extra posts. I’ve never tried just posting a link on it’s own, but suspect it would be refused.
It looks like several different hedgies are frequenting the garden judging by their spine patterns. They are all merrily coming through the hole in the fence and the trellis into the garden between 11 pm and about 2 am. My landscapers put a couple of rolls of turf between the shed and fence. I left them thinking they would be a bug hotel and placed the hedgehog house and straw bale behind the turf, Within the fenced off hedgehog only space. Now I am wondering if the turf rolls are being a barrier (about 10 inches high) as I cant see any sign of any of the hedgies attempting to access the house – not even the one who hibernated there over winter. Any suggestions?
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