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A Hedgehog in the garden!

edited February 2012 in Off-topic
This morning when we came down for breakfast and refilled the bird feeders, we were shocked to see a small hedghog eating the bird food. The garden is heavy with snow and everywhere is iced over. Poor little animal! Erica has brought him into my workshop and put him in a box as he is well underweight to survive the winter. Now we are going up town to shop, which will include dog food for our new lodger. Here's hoping we can help him survive to the spring.

Comments

  • Awww, that's lovely, norcot.

    Hope your new lodger is all snugly and warm now.
  • http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/FAQS/caring_for_hoglets.htm

    Thought that might be helpful.
  • Aww, poor hoglets.
  • Young hedgies often don't make it through the winter, so you did the right thing giving him food. We have a few around here and I have put dog food out for them before. Don't give them milk, though. It upsets their stomach. Water is best. When it's frosty wild animals can't find drinking water as puddles and ponds are frozen.
  • we had a fox appear in our garden on Sunday, must have been distrubed from his usual area by people sledging on the nearby heath. Good luck with your new arrival norcot, the nosh and shelter you provide will be vital to the prickly one. news of the hedgehog has 'pricked' my conscience and I'm off to feed the birds right away!
  • Thanks for the advice and the good wishes. We have been onto the Hedgehog Society who advise oral and injectable wormers and antibiotics. This is obviously a vet's field. We have put it in a large box - they get stressed in small boxes - we have covered it with barley straw and put a covered hot water bottle in with it along with some water and some dog food. Hypopthermia is the immediated danger so the box is now in our utility room near a large radiator. We were hoping for a nearby address for a professional hedgehog carer but the Society could only suggest one in Grimsby, which must be all of 70 miles away from here.
    We have undoubtedly saved its life as it is very underweight and needs to feed. It must be a late-born hoglet. Wish it luck. Maybe we can nurse it through the winter and give it a Spring release.
  • So heart warming!

    Hopefully you will post some photos of it scurrying into the wild :)

    I bet you will miss it when it goes though.
  • Good luck, norcot. I hope you manage to bring him through the winter successfully.
  • Aww, well done, norcot. Wish I could see him. Hope he makes it - he definitely will if you manage to get him to the Hedgehog centre. I LOVE hedgehogs, they are so cute!
  • Well done Norcot, that's brilliant.

    I've finally found how I can stop the pigeons taking the bird food I put out for the blackbirds. I bought a mix that is especially for blackbirds and thrushes- soft-billed birds (apparently) and the pigeons haven't touched it. :)
  • Good luck, Norcot!
    we have so many badgers here that hedgehogs don't stand an earthly and I've not seen one in many years.
  • Our prickly lodger has settled in well and is gorging itself on dog food. It is certainly nowhere near the 500g minimum weight to survive the winter in hibernation. We will have to keep feeding it until it hibernates in the relative warm of our cold conservatory or until the spring when it can go and buy its own dog food.
  • Do let us know how he gets on. We have redwings in the garden during this cold spell.
  • You're a very kind person, Norcot. If you're thinking of naming him, how about Spiny Norman?
  • Prickles? Too obvious? I suppose you're sure it's a 'him'?
  • [quote=Jay Mandal]I suppose you're sure it's a 'him'?[/quote]
    How do you sex a hedgehog? Very carefully. :)
  • You may have noticed I am trying to refer to the animal as It, as I'm not sure of the gender. I don't know about naming it. I think we must get it through the winter alive first before we get too attached to it.
    Betsie, you are lucky having Redwings in your garden. We used to see them every cold spell when our neighbour had a large Holly tree full of berries.They would start at the top and strip it of berries. Unfortunately when our nieghbour died, they pulled down his bungalow and built some flats. Most of the trees were destroyed by the developers. I say most of the trees; we had a word with the builders and managed to salvage three mature fruit trees. We have a Bramley apple tree, a plum tree and a cherry tree from them. Luckily they all survive being dug up and transferred over the wall to us.
  • They've systematically stripped the berries and this week were perching on the very ends of the branches getting the last few.
  • edited February 2012
    For a moment I thought you were talking about hedgehogs, Betsie. :)
  • Our lodger has settled in well. Considering it is only the size of a standard tin of dog meat, it has eaten such a tin of dog meat in just two days. It was hungry!
  • [quote=norcot] it has eaten such a tin of dog meat in just two days. It was hungry![/quote] [quote=norcot]
    Cleaning up after it must take a shovel!
  • Too right! Dog food does produce a lot of smelly waste. The only way to cope is by using newspapers, rubber gloves and a peg on the nose. I only hope the little blighter feels gratitude towards us for saving it.
  • It is a lovely story. I hope 'the little blighter' is doing well (and you!)
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