Sightings
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I have a regular visitor and she/he is continuing to feed. I worry that I am discouraging it from hibernating.
Don’t worry about it. Hedgehogs don’t need to hibernate. If yours has chosen not to then that is fine.
Please don’t stop feeding as hedgehogs have to prepare their bodies to hibernate, they don’t just stop.
If you stop feeding now it could cause this hog all kinds of problemsI have been feeding ‘my’ hedgehog since the summer. My husband built a feeding station and we have a camera too. I have been blessed with nightly visits and have many video recordings. However I had recent visits by a cat, which is not welcome.
Hi LFS
Lovely to hear you have had a hedgehog there. Did you mean that it has continued to visit through the winter and is not hibernating?
Cats can be a problem. I never knew there were so many cats around here until I got a got a night camera!
Hi, surprise, surprise, when in my garden today I found a fresh hedgehog poo, must have been done last night as it wasn’t there yesterday. Looks like one of mine has woken up early, or is it early, not sure as we have not had a real cold spell down here in west of Cornwall yet. I am going to put some food out tonight and see if it gets eaten. I have read the other posts and it looks like not all do hibernate at all. It seems we are learning more about them now. A good thing.
Yes I have had a visit most nights. I think I may have more than one hedgehog visiting more than once a night as often the whole bowl of food is eaten. I have recordings that show they spend a few minutes or up to 10 minutes feeding at one time. I would love to be able to tell the difference between each visitor but it is tricky with the infra red images.
I definitely now have confirmation of my hedgehog visitor. Put some food out last night and it was all eaten this morning plus two large poos nearby so I am now convinced it is the big hog that was visiting us last year. It went into hibernation in November while the smaller hog carried on feeding until mid December. No sign of that one as yet though. Will now continue to put out the usual cat food for it and keep an eye out for the littler one.
Hi LFS
Apologies for the delay replying. You mentioned that you would like to be able to tell the difference between the hogs. Of course, it is easier if you actually see them, but is still possible with video images. I wrote some notes to help with identification a while back within this topic:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/tolerant-hedgies/
which you might find helpful.Hi ElsieD
It’s been such a strange winter, weatherwise, that it wouldn’t be surprising if the hogs don’t know whether they’re coming or going. It maybe that being down in Cornwall that the hogs come out of hibernation earlier. Some of the males tend to start returning in March in a normal year, so what with climate change and this particular winter, it could be earlier. Then, of course, there are the hogs who haven’t hibernated at all. So I think it’s a good idea to leave food out. If nothing else a returner from hibernation would probably welcome having some food readily available.
Good luck with the hogs, I hope the smaller one returns as well.
Nic
Thanks for this information and link, I will try and give it a go. I think I man have a couple of visitors some nights. Last night was a good night and had a number of feeding sessions between midnight and 4.am. There was definite one hog making several visits and a possible second hog later in the night/early morning.
I put food inside a feeding station and make sure there is fresh (rain water) out side, so the hog often pops in and out during one feeding session.Been gardening this morning and was tidying up a large clump of red hot pokers in the front border, when I discovered a hedgehog buried deep in the middle under a clump of leaves. We have regular visits from a hedgehog but thought it would have chosen a more remote place to hibernate as we have a large garden and keep the edges quite wild, plus one side borders a field area. Will put some food into the feeding station again in case it is active. Do they hibernate in the same place as they sleep? If so I seem to have discovered its nighttime nest.
Hi Alcuza
To a hog, some nice thick vegetation is nice thick vegetation whether ornamental or not!
It seems quite likely that it was hibernating at this time of year. They don’t normally hibernate in the same places that they used as nests in their active time – apart from anything else for parasite prevention reasons.
Possibly a bit late now, but the best thing to do if you find a hedgehog like that is to disturb it as little as possible, try to replace any of the more surface vegetation which you might have moved and hope it continues hibernating. I think it is a good idea to put some food out, though, in case the hog was hibernating and has woken up. If it wasn’t hibernating it would probably welcome some supplementary food too. Don’t forget water as well.
Good luck. Hope the hog is alright.
Thanks Nic, very helpful information. I don’t think I did disturb him as I discovered him when moving a mass of packed leaves but stopped immediately. I couldn’t understand why there was this mass of leaves in the middle of my red hot poker plant! I just saw part of his back and realized immediately why all the leaves were there. So I covered him up and added more leaves on top. I have put out some food in the feeding station, a little was taken last night but unfortunately my camera was all fogged up so I couldn’t see what took the food. I will monitor the situation. It has been useful for me and I will now be super careful about sticking a garden folk into the borders. Luckily yesterday I was pulling out weeds and dead bits with my hands so caused no danger to the hedgehog other than possible disturbance.
Hi Alcuza
Sounds as if the hog may have been lucky. Well done for putting the leaves back. But it is certainly wise to be very careful with forks, etc. in the garden and especially with garden machinery. Its important to check that there are no hedgehogs, etc. present. I do tend to do quite a lot of ‘hand’ gardening myself and use a small trowel for any digging. But being so close I can be sure there is nothing in the way to potentially get injured. It can be quite rewarding, though, because I find I’m more likely to see other small creatures that way too. Frogs, slow worms, beetles, etc.
There may be other hedgehogs around and some don’t hibernate, so it’s possible that the food may have been taken by one of them. I have one here and also have the fogging up camera problem!
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