Regular daytime visitor

[Rainy]

Hi, I’m new to the site & this is my first post…..

We have regular night time hedgehog visitors to our garden & I always put dried hedgehog food down of an evening and plenty of fresh water stations. However lately we have discovered one seemingly healthy hedgehog sleeping in the garden, alternating throughout the day between the raspberry bushes and the nesting box in the shed (the bushes are cool but the shed is very hot at the moment). She/he will come out of the bushes at least four times during the day for a big drink of water and something to eat I have been putting food down during the day once I discovered her looking for food. She moves to the shed later on in the afternoon and continues to sleep in the nesting box until late evening when out she comes again…. she eats a lot!
She is very purposeful and seems to know exactly what she wants and where she wants to go. She is very confident in the garden and will walk past us with no concern and no interest whatsoever. All during the daytime from as early as 10 am.

I have noticed this behavior over the last 2 weeks and was thinking she might be pregnant or possibly blind. She doesn’t deviate from her route which is a few meters of garden & will happily walk right past me as if i’m not there.

She seems perfectly happy & healthy just very strange that she’s out such a lot during the day.

I have been to my local vets who are involved with the local Hedgehog rescue & they have advised to keep an eye on her but leave her alone as long as she continues to get on with it.

Has anyone else had any regular daytime visitors? I have some lovely video footage taken this afternoon (3pm) of her just getting on with it in the garden, I will post it if I ever figure out how!

[Nic]

Hi Rainy

Welcome to the Forum.

I think your vets are right saying to keep an eye on her. However at this time of year, if she is definitely a she, it is possible she has hoglets. (although you would think she would go back to them more often than you describe) They often go out for a nap outside to have a break from the hoglets, especially when it’s hot. It does not sound so much of a worry if she is sleeping amongst vegetation, but if you found her resting right out in the open, or what seems to be like sunbathing, that would be more worrying. Again, though if that happens, take advice from the vet or a hedgehog carer, in case she has hoglets, which you probably wouldn’t want to take her away from. I suppose the other possibility is that she is an old hog.

Many hogs will sometimes walk right up to you (although usually at night) if you stay still, as if they don’t realise you are there. They don’t have very good eye sight and rely more on their sense of smell and hearing.

Re. posting films on here. It is easy if they are somewhere else on the internet – you just put a link on. I don’t have any anywhere else so have never put any films on. You can also put photos on via the home page and you can get video put on
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/my-hedgehog-street/your-hedgehog-videos/

Good luck.

[Rainy]

Thank you for the hog advice & tips on posting a video. I have added the link in a separate post, maybe you can tell if she is a she from the video??

[Author]

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