An excellent choice of Hoggy House, Dave...I have two made by the guys at Riverside Woodcraft and both are top quality, I'll be buying a third which will hopefully be used just for hibernation.
Good to hear your Hoggy is safe and well and liking its new home.
So excited to see two hedgehogs mooching around by our French doors tonight, but concerned that they are quite young, probably the offspring of one of the older hogs we have had. One ate a little, the other walked past the food. At what temperature does it become too cold for them to still be walking about? It is quite mild here - the wind and rain have passed and I think it was approx. 15 degrees today.
I would be concerned GD2 that if they are late juveniles they may be underweight and would not survive hibernation. Is there any way you can weigh them? Depending on where you live, the average safe weight is 600grammes, though they can hibernate from 450g but will probably not survive. I overwintered 2 small hogs last year who were both around 430g. I spoke to BHPS for advice and also took advice from a local rescue, but it's not for the faint hearted - a lot of work everyday because they are really messy little creatures!
Agree with Clathy, try and weigh them as soon as you can. They are probably autumn juveniles as a result of the mild weather and a confused mother having more than one litter. Still warm enough at night here but you don't want them disappearing when the cold snap eventually arrives. On a mild year mine disappeared by early Nov. Large rescues can overwinter them for you but last year they were overrun with hogs by late November/December
Thanks for the advice Mark & Clathy> We are waiting for advice from our local rescue centre who have given us hogs in the past. We have fields around us, so plenty of places to hibernate (we have a hog house that has never been used to date), but I realize it is the cold that can kill them. I will continue to put food out each night and hope that they return to eat some. We have a bird feeding station where seed is dropped daily by the messy birds and I know that hogs often spend time there hoovering up the droppings.
Just a "heads up" that AutumnWatch is back tonight. I know that they have been filming with the lady from our local rescue at the site they use, so hopefully we'll see a few hoggies some time this week, possibly tomorrow
I haven't seen our young hogs tonight, but hopefully they will find plenty of food as the weather is damp and there are always plenty of insects and slimy things around for them to find. Fingers crossed for them.
AnniD we didn't see all of Autumn Watch but will look out for the hogs during the week.
Seems, like a few of you, that Horace has gone awol. The food has not been touched for the last four nights and he was not in his hedgehog house today when I checked. Hopefully he hasn't come to any harm and is just scouting around elsewhere.
Our hogs seem to still be about - the 3 feeders are empty every morning. I have noticed that they start feeding whenever it gets dark and carry on to-ing and fro-ing until about 6am. Difficult to tell how many, the most on camera at any one time over the summer was 4 adults and then 2 smaller hogs appeared. Unfortunately the small ones don't seem to have been around for a while. My neighbour also puts food out and maybe it's tastier than ours!
Ours have been 'missing' the occasional night lately, but only for one night at a time ... however last night was the second night running that they didn't turn up for their supper.
The leaves from our big ash tree are falling now and in other years that has always coincided with Hefty and his/her friends and family changing their routine although they usually continue to visit sporadically well into November ... sometimes later.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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An excellent choice of Hoggy House, Dave...I have two made by the guys at Riverside Woodcraft and both are top quality, I'll be buying a third which will hopefully be used just for hibernation.
Good to hear your Hoggy is safe and well and liking its new home.
So excited to see two hedgehogs mooching around by our French doors tonight, but concerned that they are quite young, probably the offspring of one of the older hogs we have had. One ate a little, the other walked past the food. At what temperature does it become too cold for them to still be walking about? It is quite mild here - the wind and rain have passed and I think it was approx. 15 degrees today.
I would be concerned GD2 that if they are late juveniles they may be underweight and would not survive hibernation. Is there any way you can weigh them? Depending on where you live, the average safe weight is 600grammes, though they can hibernate from 450g but will probably not survive. I overwintered 2 small hogs last year who were both around 430g. I spoke to BHPS for advice and also took advice from a local rescue, but it's not for the faint hearted - a lot of work everyday because they are really messy little creatures!
Agree with Clathy, try and weigh them as soon as you can. They are probably autumn juveniles as a result of the mild weather and a confused mother having more than one litter. Still warm enough at night here but you don't want them disappearing when the cold snap eventually arrives. On a mild year mine disappeared by early Nov. Large rescues can overwinter them for you but last year they were overrun with hogs by late November/December
Last edited: 23 October 2017 12:13:03
Thanks for the advice Mark & Clathy> We are waiting for advice from our local rescue centre who have given us hogs in the past. We have fields around us, so plenty of places to hibernate (we have a hog house that has never been used to date), but I realize it is the cold that can kill them. I will continue to put food out each night and hope that they return to eat some. We have a bird feeding station where seed is dropped daily by the messy birds and I know that hogs often spend time there hoovering up the droppings.
Just a "heads up" that AutumnWatch is back tonight. I know that they have been filming with the lady from our local rescue at the site they use, so hopefully we'll see a few hoggies some time this week, possibly tomorrow
I haven't seen our young hogs tonight, but hopefully they will find plenty of food as the weather is damp and there are always plenty of insects and slimy things around for them to find. Fingers crossed for them.
AnniD we didn't see all of Autumn Watch but will look out for the hogs during the week.
Seems, like a few of you, that Horace has gone awol. The food has not been touched for the last four nights and he was not in his hedgehog house today when I checked. Hopefully he hasn't come to any harm and is just scouting around elsewhere.
Our hogs seem to still be about - the 3 feeders are empty every morning. I have noticed that they start feeding whenever it gets dark and carry on to-ing and fro-ing until about 6am. Difficult to tell how many, the most on camera at any one time over the summer was 4 adults and then 2 smaller hogs appeared. Unfortunately the small ones don't seem to have been around for a while. My neighbour also puts food out and maybe it's tastier than ours!
Ours have been 'missing' the occasional night lately, but only for one night at a time ... however last night was the second night running that they didn't turn up for their supper.
The leaves from our big ash tree are falling now and in other years that has always coincided with Hefty and his/her friends and family changing their routine although they usually continue to visit sporadically well into November ... sometimes later.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.