The hedgehog who came in from the cold

[angieh]

So glad of the update, thanks!

[alexgirl73]

How lovely a very heartwarming tale. I have seen a few hogs round our way, but none I've noticed in our garden. We have a few places that could be used as shelter so next spring I will have to look and see if they have been used x

[truthisouthere]

Great, it doesn't have to be made of anything elaborate either Alexgirl.

Please everyone, if you have a safe and quiet corner of your garden put a hibernation box out for our fast declining hedgehogs. It doesn't have to be a shop bought one, I made one out of an old large speaker box and a bit of roofing felt with a hole cut for an entrance. I popped some old dry leaves inside with some dry grass clippings (hay will do too) and it was moved into that winter.

If you want hogs in your garden (or you just want rid of slugs) ensure they can get in and out from neighbouring gardens and hedges, never use slug pellets, and always have a shallow bowl of water down. They like to forage under hedges and need to go through a network of many gardens and hedgerow each night to get all the food and shelter they need to live, feed and house their babies. This is getting more and more dangerous and harder for them to do so, what with the current trend of paving over gardens, gravel boarding fencing in, tidy gardens, councils not looking after what little hedges we have left and more cars on the roads, hence they are not surviving. Hogly was one of the few lucky ones, his survival for so long has certainly surprised me, I'm really pleased he's made it thus far.

[angieh]

I know we have a Hogly relative in our garden. On several evenings the dogs have gone crazy with barking at the poor thing and are hard to get back indoors. With dog proofing the garden, I do wonder how the little creature can get in and out but I seem to remember reading somewhere that they can climb.

[PoshPuss]

What a lovely hoggy tale I so hope that your little hogly has a long and productive life. We don't see many in our little cul-de-sac, unfortunately our garden is mostly patio and bare of trees, so don't get visits

[Shelley123]

just read your tale about Hogly, how lovely and i'm so pleased he's still ok.
we do sometimes see Hedgehogs around our estate but i haven't seen any this year. I didn't realise they made such a loud snuffling noise until we heard one in a hedge.

[alexgirl73]

Originally Posted by truthisouthere

Great, it doesn't have to be made of anything elaborate either Alexgirl.

Please everyone, if you have a safe and quiet corner of your garden put a hibernation box out for our fast declining hedgehogs. It doesn't have to be a shop bought one, I made one out of an old large speaker box and a bit of roofing felt with a hole cut for an entrance. I popped some old dry leaves inside with some dry grass clippings (hay will do too) and it was moved into that winter.

If you want hogs in your garden (or you just want rid of slugs) ensure they can get in and out from neighbouring gardens and hedges, never use slug pellets, and always have a shallow bowl of water down. They like to forage under hedges and need to go through a network of many gardens and hedgerow each night to get all the food and shelter they need to live, feed and house their babies. This is getting more and more dangerous and harder for them to do so, what with the current trend of paving over gardens, gravel boarding fencing in, tidy gardens, councils not looking after what little hedges we have left and more cars on the roads, hence they are not surviving. Hogly was one of the few lucky ones, his survival for so long has certainly surprised me, I'm really pleased he's made it thus far.

We have a bowl of water down all the time for the cats and dog anyway, so always there. We also have some decking with a gap to get under and I do wonder if that gets used as I've seen the mogs having a good old investigation some times (they can't get under). Plus we have a bit up the back of the garden that hasn't been tamed yet lol, with lots of bits of wood and piles of branches which could be shelters. Will really need to check