Size differences

[dbsevern]

Hi, lucky enough to spot a couple of Hedgehogs in my garden last night. There was quite a size difference between to two, but assuming that the smaller one wouldn’t be this years offspring. Is there a significant size difference between male and female, or could it have been last year’s offspring? I’ll upload a photo if I can.

[Williamc]

Smaller ones at this time of year are probably last year’s kids. There is no real difference in size between girlies and geezers of the same age/diet/upbringing.

[Nic]

Hi dbsevern

In general I agree with Williamc. However, there is occasionally a hog who just never gets very big (and this could, of course, be because of different diet/upbringing).

Otherwise, some females can be larger than some males, but I have found that the largest males tend to be larger than the largest females. But it definitely isn’t a reliable way of telling male from female.

[dbsevern]

Thanks WilliamC and Nic, came to the conclusion must be last years young one. Glad to say they still seem to be here – appear to have moved in under my shed. Keeps me on my toes when the dog goes out at night, but luckily they seem to mainly stay in my veg patch which is behind a fence.

[KimT53]

We’re lucky to have regular hoggy visitors in our garden over the last few years, and we’ve been having another regular visitor this last few weeks but it seems a particularly small one (compared to others we’ve seen). Seems ok otherwise, spends ages in the feeding station (about an hour or more on average!), so I’m just assuming it’s perhaps one of last year’s babies from later in the season. Would it be better to leave it and just keep feeding, or perhaps collect it and weigh it?

[Nic]

Hi KimT53

You may be right that it’s a late hoglet from last year. No need to collect and weigh at this time of year. It really only becomes a potential problem if you see them out during the day – particularly out in the open. It’s different in the Autumn when they might not be big enough to survive hibernation, but the 450g necessary is still really quite small. So I would keep feeding and providing water and hopefully the little one will start to grow a bit bigger. Good luck.

[Author]

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