Seen many hedgehogs?

[Chasingmytail]

super sweet I went on a hog course a few weeks ago. Nice to here all about them and help the poor wee things. Still havent seen one here.

 

[Dan7626]

Found this little chap in one of my cage traps last week

 

[The Ruminant]

We've got three hedgehog guests staying with us at the moment. About a fortnight ago we looked outside at approx 8pm and on the lawn were three large hedgehogs. It was very frosty and cold and these hedgehogs were not moving so we were able to walk right up and scoop each one up, pop them in a cat box and bring them indoors to warm up. The following day we took them over to the stables put them in individual long boxes with straw and we have been feeding them up every evening and waiting until it becomes frost free before letting them go again.

We often have hedgehogs wintering with us .... we are like a 5* b&b with evening meal ... and so I can't help wondering if these three have at some point stayed with us before or if they are just used to coming in to the garden because we do leave food out for any wandering hedgehogs.

I remember reading a book years ago (by Phil Drabble I think) where he said he kept hedgehogs in an old potting shed with a chimney. He claimed they are incredible climbers and scaled the wall up the chimney and away.

 

[Welsh Farmer]

ha ha @The Ruminant ... good tale from Phil Drabble We had a similar sort of mystery with one hedgehog a few years ago. We put him on the work surface in the utility room in a box and the following day we noticed he had gone. We looked everywhere, behind the freezer, cupboards etc etc and we determined that as the garden door is nearly always left wide open he probably got outside and legged it.

A couple of days later we found the said hedgehog on an entirely different work surface on the opposite side of the utility room. We have absolutely no idea how he got off the first surface or how he managed to get on top of the other work surface A total mystery

 

[martian]

Any young people on here won't be remotely surprised by these stories. Sonic the Hedgehog was, of course, based on the real hedgehog's extreme speed and climbing ability as well as its obvious strong urge to fight evil.

 

[neilo]

A small dose of metaldehyde will kill a dog, guess how much to nail a hedge pig!
It is likely to be gone by 2020 if not before, as in Chlorpyrifos, then the numbers will increase.
They are also a delicacy for badgers apparently so it will not all be Meta at fault.

It might well kill your dogs, but that doesn't mean it's as toxic to hedgehogs. Ivermectin would do for my collies, but it doesn't hurt my sheep.

I was always under the impression that Metaldehyde wasn't much of an issue for hedgehogs, but Methiocarb was pretty lethal. Perhaps those urban gardeners should stop chucking Draza around by the pot full, rather than blaming the farmers again?