Multiple Hedgehogs
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In the summer I was feeding about 10 Hedgehogs in the back garden, there were times when 4 would be around the feeding bowl at once. I think other people are now feeding them as well now, as I’ve only got 2 or 3. The hedgehog food lady at the market is selling a lot of food and hedgehog houses. I was spending £5 a week on food, its now down to about £1 a week.
Hi Paul
It’s good to hear you’ve had lots of hedgehogs visiting. It is quite likely that some of the hedgehogs have gone to hibernate already, so that may be where they’ve gone. Hopefully, at least some of them, will return safe and well in the Spring.
I have been putting hedgehog food out for a couple of months and last week invested in a trail camera in order to capture footage before the hedgehogs hibernate. To my surprise I have regularly been getting up to 7 feeding at once! I thought hedgehogs were supposed to be solitary animals! Could it be that they are a family as they seem very comfortable with each other? They are also using the hedgehog house I purchased earlier this year and today I notice that there are at least 3 hedgehogs fast asleep inside.
Hi Stevey,
that’s fantastic! How lucky are you to have so many at once as well. its a bit of a misconception that hogs live alone all their lives, they are solitary, but not unsociable creatures necessarily, apart from the grumpy ones – and there are some very grumpy ones around! They could be a family – or simply inhabit an area and have become accustomed to each other. Even if overwintered together, hogs will often go their own way on release – but I have known the carer I’m in contact with mention that they can become reliant on each other also – but I’m not too sure what that presents itself as being in the wild. At this time of year with food so precious, they are more likely to tolerate each other in order to get some food. I assume you have several feeding points for them to share? if you could capture them together in a photo, that would be worth sharing with us hog addicts!
Dear Jan-Marie,
I have been putting 2 smallish bowls of Spike’s Dinner dry hedgehog food each afternoon, and lately been topping them up just before I go to bed. I am capturing lots of hedgehog activity all through the night and invariably have 2 or 3 feeding at the same time. Last night I got 6 at once briefly. The occasions when I have captured 6 or 7 at once have been early on when it has just started to get dark, but I am amazed to capture in the past couple of days 2 or 3 hogs out and about and feeding over an hour before dusk (i.e in daylight).
I have submitted a short video clip of 7 hogs feeding at once, but it has not yet been accepted, but I have made a still from it as my profile picture!Hi Stevey,
your picture tells a story there I think – and I see what you mean about them being comfortable together.
one thing I did wonder is whether their presence has arisen as a consequence of development in your area, or nearby that may have squeezed them out of somewhere else?
You mention you had started to put food out relatively recently – is that because you have only recently moved into the area and noticed them or have you lived where you do for a while and decide to start and support them more recently?
I’m curious as to whether you have been surrounded by their numbers for a while or if something has caused it.
look forward to seeing the video clip when it arrives.your food bill for them must be quite high also!
@Stevey That’s amazing having that many at once, best I have seen is two….I am very jealous !!
Can you upload to YouTube or Vimeo if uploading here does not work?
Hi Stevey
It isn’t that unusual to see several hogs together if you are feeding, especially if they may be related, i.e. older hoglets and the food is all in one place. Hoglets, in particular often seem to like sharing bowls to eat, even if there is an alternative bowl of food. Always lovely to see, though.
In general hedgehogs are solitary animals but we are, in effect, encouraging them to change their behaviour by encouraging them to gather together to eat. I suspect (most of them, at least) go their separate ways when they leave the feeding area – assuming that they have become independent from their Mother. How this may be effecting hog behaviour in the longer term is another mater.
If you are getting that many hogs at one time, I would be inclined to share the food between more dishes. That way the less pushy ones will have more chance of getting their fair share.
It may also be that the ones you mentioned which were coming out early, were in fact hungry and that was the reason. It could also explain why the larger numbers turn up earlier.
Wow!…that’s fantastic to have so many feeding together at once, any more than two on our patio at the same time and it’s all out warfare! Like Jan-Marie says, it would be nice to see a photo of them all, if you have one somewhere else on the internet you should be able to copy the link on here for all us hog addicts. 🙂
Dear Jan-Marie,
I live in a very small rural village in Kent, and have lived here for 22 years. We have a large mature well tended garden and next door is an even larger one with a lot of trees and shrubs and is bounded on two sides by roads. I have seen the hedgehogs going under the fence behind where I have placed my hedgehog house and the feeding station and there are gaps under the fence with our opposite neighbours.
I have got some very interesting video clips, including hedgehogs collecting leaves to add to the straw I have placed in the hedgehog house. Last week I made a small hedgehog house that fits inside a plastic lidded crate and one of the hogs spent several nights taking the straw out of it and into the larger hedgehog house. There is also a lot of traffic into and out of the larger hedgehog house and I know that there have been at least 4 hogs sleeping in it during the day. I also have clips of larger hogs ‘bullying’ smaller ones, and wondered if they target hogs that they did not raise.I have just uploaded one of my video clips onto YouTube, showing 7 hedgehogs at once, with a little ‘bullying’ bonus!
The URL is https://youtu.be/AuIwT-ExELM
Enjoy.Hi Stevey,
What a fantastic video and I am seriously jealous. The one in the middle on the left looks quite small. Did they all turn up around the same time?
So lovely to see, please keep us all posted on their movements, bed hopping, hibernation
Thanks.Hi Stevey
Lovely video. Definitely 6 youngsters and one adult. There could be all sorts of reasons why that hoglet was shunted – although it looked fairly mild in hedgehog terms. Often adult hoglets are very tolerant of all hoglets, even if they aren’t their own, but sometimes you get an intolerant one! These look as if they would be old enough to be independent now. I think you really could do with some more dishes, maybe a little further away from each other.
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