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Help Save The Hedgehogs

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  • Mark56Mark56 Posts: 1,653

    You could do a shallow dish of water too for the drier periods, birds will love it also. 

  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Hi - sadly we had a very nasty incident this morning.  Our garden adjoins open countryside and we have open fencing just acting as a boundary marker. Sadly a dog walker didn't have their dog on a lead this morning and it ran into our garden, mauled and killed my neighbours cat. It was horrific. Everyone is very upset, especially the children. 

    As a result we've decided to put chicken wire up along our boundary. Trouble is, we get lots of hedgehogs and we'd hate to block their access. 

    We will cut out holes in the chicken wire. The total length is just over 100m. At what intervals do you think we should cut the holes please? Would every 10m be enough? Thanks

  • Lou12Lou12 Posts: 1,149

    That's just awful Tootles, it must have been devastating.

     

  • GWRSGWRS Posts: 8,478

    Tootles , not nice image

  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    It was Lou12. He was such a gentle little thing. It's just so very sad.  A lesson for dog walkers to keep dogs on a lead if they can't control or trust them enough not to cause damage. It could have been a child. Doesn't bare thinking about. The lady was very upset.... not as upset as my neighbours children I guess. 

  • Mark56Mark56 Posts: 1,653

    Tootles - So sorry to hear that, some owners are not responsible enough. We're getting a terrier at the end of the month and won't be letting him off the lead (they can't be trusted with their instincts). Anyway, every 10-20m would be perfect! Just make sure the chicken wire itself hasn't got too small of holes (hogs have been known to catch their back legs in it and break them). Also you could put black tape around the 5"+ holes so it isn't sharp image Well done for thinking of the hedgies! 

  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Thanks Mark56. We'll do just that. We've bought some rubber tubing to line the holes so that there will be no nasty sharp edges. 

  • ReedySReedyS Posts: 6

    Thank you so much for the link to the hedgehog page - I've been seeing hedgehogs every now and then where I live and I'm going to build a hedgehog house and feeding station now as I bought food but I'm certain the cats/foxes are gobbling it up before the hedgehog gets a look in!  Thanks. image

  • Mark56Mark56 Posts: 1,653

    Great work guys, they should be appearing between now and early April. Breeding starts in late May.

  • Last year I had a family of Hedgehogs in my garden - it was lovely- I grew up in Canada and we dont have them there- I hadnt seen one before in the wild- I had to ask what it was!

    My older neighbour has had them for several years.

    I have a garden that is hard to manage - have turned into a wildlife garden for the most part- I need to build a hedgehog house.

    Now the bad news. The other neighbour next to me got a dog last autumn and the hedgehogs stopped coming around. I dont know if it was because it was getting time for them to move on- where? or if the neihbours dog- staffie/jack russel has scared them off. Any ideas?
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