Hedgehog

kildare lad

Ive a hedgehog in the garden at night time, most of the garden is just lawn , I read online that cat food is good , so I left out some but he wasn't interested. is it worth leaving anything out for him, water etc or is it best to just leave him be

Mickeroo

I'm surprised he didn't go for the cat food. Was it wet food or kibble?

No harm feeding him, they are on the decline and need all the help they can get.

byhookorbycrook

Mickeroo wrote: »

I'm surprised he didn't go for the cat food. Was it wet food or kibble?

No harm feeding him, they are on the decline and need all the help they can get.

I agree, wet cat food is the way to go and never any milk !

New Home

And definitely leave out some water. If you've an apple, wash it well and leave that outside, too. As for cat food, they do prefer wet to dry but either are equally good (if you give them dry food then increase the water supply!), but don't ever give them fish-based cat food. Beef is best, I've been told.

kildare lad

Ye we got it a fish free cat food, I think it was chicken , watched him zigzagging across the garden till he found it , he sniffed it for a few second and legged it ...lol, we left it out for another hour but no joy, but there was 3/4 slugs on the tray I left it on so maybe there plentiful in my garden , is there any particular brand of cat food that works better, it's hard not to feel sorry for the little fellas cos the only hedgehogs I normally see are the ones squashed on the roads,

byhookorbycrook

The hog mustn’t be hungry so, which is good news . Leave some water dishes around the place and put out food for a few nights , but it sounds like the food situation is good .
There’s a hedgehog rescue lady on Facebook, might be handy to friend her as she is great to answer queries.

Alun

They eat slugs, one of their big benefits to gardeners, so if there are plenty of them in your garden he'll be happy out! I agree, he's probably just not hungry. They'll also eat caterpillars and worms.

kildare lad

Not gonna put out anything tonight with that rain they should be ok , there'll be plenty of worms coming up with the rain

magicbastarder

hogs don't really like slugs all that much, they prefer beetles, woodlice, etc AFAIK.

Mickeroo

I think slugs are bad for them as they can get lungworms off them.

elperello

Irish Hedgehog Survey

You might consider helping these guys out by filling in the survey form.

It only takes a couple of minutes.

https://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/additional-survey-schemes/irish-hedgehog-survey/

Day Lewin

Mickeroo wrote: »

I think slugs are bad for them as they can get lungworms off them.

I've heard that too, and I hope it isn't true, or not too common:

WE have actual film footage of a hedgehog in our garden - we offered it worms which it ignored, and snails - too crunchy.
Then we offered it a slug and the creature went mad for it; drooling and panting, it rolled the slug around between its little paws until the skin split and peeled back and then it ate the innards out, with relish - and a second, and a third. Then it wandered off, belly full.

Alun

Dogs can certainly get lungworm infections from slugs, but I wasn't aware hedgehogs could.

If I read the article below correctly, it appears that slugs (and earthworms) are more of an intermediate host that can result in disease transfer between infected hedgehogs ...

https://www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/portfolio/lungworm-in-hedgehogs/

Half-cocked

Apparently hedgehogs will switch from 1 favourite food to another at intervals. A hedgehog that won't touch slugs one month will go mad for them the next. Our resident switched to slugs recently and won't touch the cat food it loved before then.

Igotadose

So, there's a hedgehog searching around the front lawn as I write this. House is in West Kerry in 'farm country' though it's on an active road. Yard is mostly grass/weed combination, about 1/3 on the other side of the berm is the perc field/wild growth area, full of dirt, rocks, weeds (brambles, willowherb, thistles, nettles). A few patches for vegetables. Lots of slugs and snails year round, this year for the first time I've been setting slug traps and going out at night to catch and destroy slugs/snails. Not sure if this year's a particular bumper crop or not of slugs, they're never not here.

Now, the lawn was mowed and strimmed yesterday, which is something not great for hedgehogs but until today, we didn't know there was one. Now that I think about it, various small 'digging up' spots in the vegetable beds that had me puzzled now might be attributable to hedgehogs.

My plan is to leave it alone and not get close. It seems to be foraging and is 'chubby looking' per herself, so I guess it's healthy. It's just weird to see one out in the middle of the lawn. It's cloudy and drizzly right now. Just leave it alone?

Oh, there are plenty of dogs, cats and birds in the area. We don't have any pets and only cats get into the yard, we've a gate and a wall between us and the road.

magicbastarder

it's not running in circles is it?
unusual to be seen out in the day, unless it's a nursing mother fuelling up. that'd be an incredibly late litter if it was though.

Mickeroo

They like cat food, no harm in leaving some out for it if you have any. They don't really eat slugs much (they do eat them but not a big part of the diet and they can be quite bad for them).

It shouldn't really be out and about at this time of day though, I wouldn't be so sure it's healthy. Might be no harm contacting one of the rescues if it makes a habit out of it,, Dublin Hedgehog rescue seem to operate country wide going by their facebook.

magicbastarder

the first thing yvonne would suggest i expect, is to take it to a local vet for a quick check, if you know any which would be amenable to the idea - they'd be able to tell much more effectively than she'd be able to diagnose from afar.

Igotadose

magicbastarder wrote: »

the first thing yvonne would suggest i expect, is to take it to a local vet for a quick check, if you know any which would be amenable to the idea - they'd be able to tell much more effectively than she'd be able to diagnose from afar.

Well it was gone after about 15 minutes. Not running around in circles... Just foraging. Online sources say they can have litters in August. This has been a great year for inverts out here and the presence of the hedgehog explains tge disturbance I've seen in the mulch in the vegetable beds lately esp. overnight.

No to catfood. Too many feral cats already. No convenienr vets or escues, this area hasn't got much, houses, farms and a small village with 2 pubs


Hopefully can post some pics later. I will call the one ver that's around see whar advice he can give. Thanks!

Igotadose

A cropped, not very good image of the beast in question from this morning. It's nose is down in the grass rooting around. Haven't seen it again today.

New Home

If you leave out dry cat food (less likely to attract flies who'd lay their eggs on it and that in the case of bluebottles could be lethal as the eggs/ maggots survive the stomach acid) AND a souce of water it'd definitely help.

Igotadose

Well, it's been around 6 weeks since we last saw the hedgehog. Sadly, I've seen a few that lost encounters with autos on the roads around here, but this afternoon, a small one strolled the yard, possibly an offspring of the original one.

Lockdown brings them out

New Home

He's very small, he needs to out up a lot of weight and very quickly or he won't survive the winter. I had posted some contact details for hedgehog rescues before, would you consider giving one of them a ring, please?

I can look for the contacts again later, if you can't find them.

magicbastarder

yvonne in hedgehog rescue dublin got in a newborn litter a few weeks ago - first time it had ever happened for her this time of year, so she was quite surprised. and she's had *four* more litters sent to her since.

Igotadose

New Home wrote: »

He's very small, he needs to out up a lot of weight and very quickly or he won't survive the winter. I had posted some contact details for hedgehog rescues before, would you consider giving one of them a ring, please?

I can look for the contacts again later, if you can't find them.

I've contacted them via e-mail. It'd be awfully far to travel to Dublin but maybe they can recommend something more local. Dingle Peninsula here.

A2LUE42

Hedgehog out and about in the garden an hour ago, is that normal at this time of the day?

New Home

No and no. It's not normal, not for the time of the day or for the time of the year, either - they should be hibernating. Leave out some wet cat food and contact one of the hedgehog rescues, it could be a young, underweight one that might need rescuing.

magicbastarder

yvonne from HRD was saying her lot have only gone into hibernation in the last week or so, but a hedgehog out during the day is not a good sign usually.

our lad is up today, but we know he's blind so him being up during the day is not a cause for concern.