How do hedgehogs mate?

Bebop said:
I hope you don't mind me sharing my hedgehog news on your thread @Cobra It's only taken me 30 years to spot one here.
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Not at all Bee, that's brilliant news.
Keep us updated (y)

Its a shame about the dead one though :(

BTW I went out and stocked up on dog food etc recently, I've not seen a HH since.
Bloody Ingrates :D
 
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Bebop said:
That's strange. I hope they didn't try and cross the road :cautious:
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Nothing flat outside so hopefully they have found other lodgings.
Actually IIRC they did this last year, about this time.

Bebop said:
You'll have to get a dog now :D
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:LOL:
It's tinned meat so it'll keep.
 
Add a few herbs and spices and it'll make a half decent pie filling!

You can do the same with dog food!!!
 
Up date.
A few nights ago, I thought I saw movement behind the flowers, but thought it might just have been a trick of the half light.

A couple of nights ago, I saw a hedgehog, the first in a couple or so months, hoovering up under the bird feeders!
I got sort of close and threw it some meal worms, while I prepared it a steak dinner.

Curiously its not eating meat, but preferring meal worms , sunflower seeds & peanuts.

Just one request, stop crapping on my patio, it's no where near your feeding station..
 
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Cobra said:
Up date.
A few nights ago, I thought I saw movement behind the flowers, but thought it might just have been a trick of the half light.

A couple of nights ago, I saw a hedgehog, the first in a couple or so months, hoovering up under the bird feeders!
I got sort of close and threw it some meal worms, while I prepared it a steak dinner.

Curiously its not eating meat, but preferring meal worms , sunflower seeds & peanuts.

Just one request, stop crapping on my patio, it's no where near your feeding station..
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I’ve no idea but I wonder if hedgehogs ’migrate‘ regularly to diferent food sources. There are a lot of grey squirrels in my area but they only appear in my garden (barring occasionally) at certain times of year — the conker season for example — and then disappear at others. I don’t put out any food they can access which obviously ight draw them at all times.
 
Cobra said:
I've not heard or heard of that before TBH.
These 2 were actually quiet I guess they didn't want to wake the neighbours. :D
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We had a couple in our garden a few years ago. They made a dreadful noise working up steam and chuntering around.for about half an hour before getting on with it.
 
sphexx said:
I’ve no idea but I wonder if hedgehogs ’migrate‘ regularly to diferent food sources.
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I'm sure I can't be the only one feeding him (them?)
 
Cobra said:
I'm sure I can't be the only one feeding him (them?)
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I was thinking of natural foods but yes, maybe they travel between different human providers.
 
sphexx said:
I was thinking of natural foods
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I've got plenty of slugs here to keep them occupied, it seems that HH will roam up to a Km a night in search of food.
 
Cobra said:
I've got plenty of slugs here to keep them occupied, it seems that HH will roam up to a Km a night in search of food.
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Maybe there‘s a better class of slug down the road :LOL: .

From observing my poultry, which had an inexhaustible supply of wheat in feeder, they would wander about to different areas of the garden, go over the fence to next door, out on the grass road verge or cross over the (A Class) road for no obvious benefit of food. I think they maybe avoided boredom that way but there’s an obvious benefit of using different plants and insects so varying diet and build up of toxins and not always being in the same place for predators. Same would apply to hedgehogs.
 
Cobra said:
There is a fair chance that mine are full of nematodes :D


Chickens aren't known to be the brightest creatures, maybe the same applies to HH :D
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You are on dangerous ground with me there, calling chickens dumb! :LOL: . I think that, like many animals, they are bright enough within their natural environment but people judge them after they’ve bred out much of their natural behaviour and then put them in conditions where they can’t express what remains of it.
 
This is all very curious, bear with it ..

My house is a chalet style, which means I have an approx 2 feet overhang at the low eaves.
Its handy for storing things against the wall and keeping them dry, potting compost, waste bins and the like.

Against my neighbours garage wall I have clump forming bamboo to hide the brickwork,
it makes a nice screen.
When bamboo grows it sheds sheaths rather like slim dry leaves.

This morning when I went outside that corner of the patio was covered in these "leaves"
My first thought that there was a strong wind last night that had blown a lot of them up against the house.

Then I also noticed that the laying on its side, the half empty bag of ericaceous compost was also full of the leaves.
And a large sweet pea stalk.
Someone had worked through the night setting up home! And yes on careful inspection its in there fast asleep.

It hadn't quite finished the job

IMG_9394.jpg

so I finished it for it with a handful of leaves :)

IMG_9393.jpg
 
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Not hedgehogs but I was given what I was told was a clump forming bamboo which I planted, just to be on the safe side, where it was surrounded by lawn. Never saw any sign of it spreading into the lawn but one day it popped up 6 feet away next to an ornamental wall and I later found it had gone further under a flagged patio and I feared it had gone under the house though that didn’t happen. I evicted it obviosly.

I note you have sensibly placed against the *neighbour’s* wall :LOL:
 
sphexx said:
I note you have sensibly placed against the *neighbour’s* wall :LOL:
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Its been there many years and hasn't moved very far at all. Maybe I have proper clump forming :D
 
Cobra said:
It’s been there many years and hasn't moved very far at all. Maybe I have proper clump forming :D
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Based on my experience, it’s probably ducked under the neighbours garage and has formed an attractive clump on the other side :LOL:

True non invasive ones do exist so I expect yours is but I just respect the cunning of plant life ㋡
 
sphexx said:
Based on my experience, it’s probably ducked under the neighbours garage and has formed an attractive clump on the other side :LOL:
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I do keep an eye on for her :)
 
Gav. said:
Good to see, Chris (y)
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Cheers Gav.
Its quite cozy where it is warm and dry, sheltered from the wind by a high fence and warm up against the kitchen wall.
I wonder if it'll stay. I'd better stock up on dog food :D
 
Looks like we have lost our hedgehog(s), unfortunately.

The trail camera was occupied try to 'catch' the mouse in the kitchen for a good while but it has been out in the garden again every night for over a month now and only once has a hedgehog been recorded.

Hope one or more come back in the future.

Dave
 
Tringa said:
Looks like we have lost our hedgehog(s), unfortunately.
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All of mine buggered off a couple of months ago.
This is a new addition of about a week, so don't give up hope :)
 
Cobra said:
warm up against the kitchen wall.
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It'll be tunneling through the wall soon :LOL:

Hope it stays!

Our 'hogs were lost to the traffic, so is really nice to see them safe & nest building (y)
 
Gav. said:
Check it's toilet trained first :D
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Something is crapping all over my patio ... So maybe not such a good idea :D
 
Despite the heat, someone has had a busy afternoon, with housekeeping.

The afore mentioned potting compost sack, ( post #135 )is fast increasing in size, and there is a pile of leaves
just off to the side.
It wasn't like that around midday.
 
Its currently 25oC out there, and climbing, where hoggy has set up home its a sun trap.
I touched the bag with the back of my hand, and yep its bloody hot!
I've now shaded it with my old fishing umbrella....
I'm getting soft in my old age :D
 
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Gav. said:
Next you'll be putting a heated blanket over it in the winter :LOL:
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:LOL:
But I might need to make the sunshade a bit more permanent, one way or another, than it is now,
it doesn't happen very often, but if it rains or snows hard, it does blow that way occasionally.
Thinking cap on ...
 
Been getting regular hedgehog visits overnight on my trail camera, but yesterday evening this one was snuffling round the garden before 7.30 pm. Gave it some hedgehog food which it seemed to enjoy before hoovering up seeds etc under the bird feeding station.

Hedgehog by Ian Wilkinson, on Flickr
 
wilki said:
which it seemed to enjoy before hoovering up seeds etc under the bird feeding station.
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They do seem keen on seeds and nuts, I first noticed that last year when I had 5.
I now feed a mixture of dog food, meal worms, peanuts ( the bird type) and sunflower seeds.
 
Thief!
I use those nylon scrunchie things that people use in showers,
as part of my aerobic pond filter, I had at least half a dozen weathering off under my garden bench.
This morning I noticed they had all gone save one, and the hedgehog bag was bulging.

I wouldn't have thought they were the warmest or the most comfortable of bedding materials.
But there it is. Hoggy thinks so :D
 
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I thought this might be the right thread for this: Mrs P found a young hedgie about to cross a busy road this morning when she was walking the dog (about 5:15am!), and with no nice fields nearby, she picked it up and brought it home, releasing it into our garden and then waking me from my slumbers to tell me all about it at 5:45am. And get me to go look at it - but it had already wandered off.
However, about half an hour ago it appeared, hoovering up spilt bird food under the feeders, so I went out and peered at it - looks very healthy, young and fit. It managed to squeeze under the fence at the bottom of the garden, so I'm wondering if it's found a safe place there. Our garden is full of dropped berries and pears at present as well as bird seed and dried mealworms, so hopefully hedge, who Mrs P has named "Benson" (...and Hedges?), will set up camp for the foreseeable. I'll set out the trailcams shortly to find out.
 
lindsay said:
I thought this might be the right thread for this: Mrs P found a young hedgie about to cross a busy road this morning when she was walking the dog (about 5:15am!), and with no nice fields nearby, she picked it up and brought it home, releasing it into our garden and then waking me from my slumbers to tell me all about it at 5:45am. And get me to go look at it - but it had already wandered off.
However, about half an hour ago it appeared, hoovering up spilt bird food under the feeders, so I went out and peered at it - looks very healthy, young and fit. It managed to squeeze under the fence at the bottom of the garden, so I'm wondering if it's found a safe place there. Our garden is full of dropped berries and pears at present as well as bird seed and dried mealworms, so hopefully hedge, who Mrs P has named "Benson" (...and Hedges?), will set up camp for the foreseeable. I'll set out the trailcams shortly to find out.
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Looks like you've got another mouth to feed and water too :D (y)
 
Since we got HDTV installed I've been addicted to seeing nightly visitors. We've had a fox visit three times and hedgehogs come just about every night. The most hedgehogs I've seen in the garden at any one time is three and there are often multiple visits throughout the night. I've seen courting behaviour twice but I don't know if they've actually mated. The only unwelcome visitors are local cats as when they come they eat all the food I put out for the hedgehogs and fox despite presumably being well fed at home.
 
I've just installed one of my Trailcams to see if he comes back tonight (Apeman HS5 20Mp). If he does, I'll site the other one somewhere suitable. Set to 1900-0615 at present with 5 sec PIR delay).
 
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