A further installment on my newly awoken hog - tonight his "friend" came too - they had a little shuffle or was that a snuffle together, ate some food and then disappeared again.
Yes, we could have some happy news in a month or two's time - how long is a hog gestation?
I am hoping that they will be strong enough to withstand the cold weather, they looked very lively last night and I will certainly be feeding them each evening now.
No sign of the hog during the snow but he / she has been back every night the last week or so.
In the background you can see my latest creation which is the hedgehog 'ladder' to help them up the steep (45 degree-ish) muddy bank. I'm not convinced this hog is using that passageway but the previous, bigger hog (who we think was run over) was definitely using this access.
A lovely picture of your visiting hog Dave, he seems content to visit you - you are obviously doing something right and very thoughtful of you to provide a ladder! Our two hogs visited all through the snowy few nights we had recently - we were very surprised to see them and put out extra food.
I was talking to the lady who runs our local hedgehog rescue, she has had a couple of hogs visiting all winter. She is hoping to release a couple of large healthy ones locally this weekend. Apparently one rescue had some hoglets brought in a couple of weeks ago ! I have spent most of the day shredding newspaper so there is plenty of bedding for the remaining ones at the rescue and any new ones
Always put out as much food as possible, hopefully if some is left they will have eaten enough. During the colder spells their bodies would have used up much more fat reserves. Mid December onwards was cold, January was mild here and end of February freezing, I expect they are just as confused as us!
Definitely Hosta, as rescues have recently discovered, hibernation is less of a constant state and more of an 'awaken when the temperatures rise' be that mild winter spells too
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A further installment on my newly awoken hog - tonight his "friend" came too - they had a little shuffle or was that a snuffle together, ate some food and then disappeared again.
Yes, we could have some happy news in a month or two's time - how long is a hog gestation?
I am hoping that they will be strong enough to withstand the cold weather, they looked very lively last night and I will certainly be feeding them each evening now.
In the background you can see my latest creation which is the hedgehog 'ladder' to help them up the steep (45 degree-ish) muddy bank. I'm not convinced this hog is using that passageway but the previous, bigger hog (who we think was run over) was definitely using this access.
I have spent most of the day shredding newspaper so there is plenty of bedding for the remaining ones at the rescue and any new ones
Always put out as much food as possible, hopefully if some is left they will have eaten enough. During the colder spells their bodies would have used up much more fat reserves. Mid December onwards was cold, January was mild here and end of February freezing, I expect they are just as confused as us!