That’s hedgehogs for you!
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I’ve been hoping for hoglets this year but after two months of anticipation my resident hog didn’t return last night. I thought I’d better check the two houses, as it’s been using both of them, but all I found was a load of dried poo and some very smelly hay! At least I’ve been able to give them a good clean and disinfectant and some fresh hay. In the past my residents have never stayed longer than a few weeks so I’m grateful to have had such a long time with this one although disappointed about the lack of hoglets. I’ve still got other visitors at night so there’s plenty of time for someone else to move in. You always worry when they don’t return but I’ve had lots of practice at this! Good luck to all the other champions out there.
That’s sad 5sandown, that it wasn’t hoglets. Better luck next time. Sounds like a pretty mucky hog – maybe just as well it moved out before it got too disgusting!
Thanks Nic. On the garden cam this morning it seems I’ve already got a new resident or it might even be the previous one returning now that I’ve done it’s housekeeping for it! Lots of other sightings as well so it’s proving to be a busy year for hogs. We’ve now had quite a bit of rain over the last week or so and I’m hoping that the foraging has improved. I expect to have to start fostering hogs from the rescue centre again over the next month or two so lots to look forward to!
Hi 5sandown
Interestingly I saw a hog catch an earthworm on the lawn the other night, so it must be damp enough for them to venture near the surface now – despite the fact that we haven’t had a gread deal of rain here. I wish it would rain more, overnight to wash off all the rididulous markings someone keeps putting on the hogs round here. Poor hogs, they deserve a break.
Hi Nic, I’ve read the posts about marking hedgehogs. The only time I’ve come across this is in rescue centres where there is a litter with no mother to care for them. Once they are stabilised it’s common for them to be marked with small spots of nail varnish on the spines so that the centre can tell them apart when they are in the same cage, one spot, two spots etc. These are very faint though and are usually invisible by the time they are big enough to be released. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to mark a hog for other reasons.
Hi 5sandown
It’s understandable if it’s for that reason i.e. for the benefit of the hedgehog or hedgehogs in general. The guidance of the BHPS is that they are sure hedgehogs would rather not be marked but if someone has to mark them it should be with non-toxic water based substance on only a very few spines, away from the face, etc. Even when it is for the benefit of the hog/s, in reality, there is no need for more than one dot in most instances. i.e. left shoulder, right shoulder, right hip, left hip, etc.
But these hogs are atrociously marked with large areas of markings. Some pale some dark, so possibly being marked by different people, but with really excessive amounts of substance, so that the poor things look like parodies of their natural selves. So sad to see, and the people doing that may well claim to be hedgehog lovers! To my mind to mark hedgehogs in such a way is not only completely unnecessary, definitely not for the hedgehogs benefit and in some cases even cruelty.
If people are doing it to see how many hedgehogs they have visiting, these hedgehogs are often re-marked with different patterns, so potentially are being counted more than once. And who does that benefit, the person not the hedgehog.
All very sad – as if the hogs didn’t have enough to contend with without that!
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