Intruder! 4.35 a.m. Sunday morning! Although 'arry is in and out of his feeding station, several times between around 9.00 p.m. and 5.00 a.m. He doesn't neglect his "garden patrolling duties." Here he is last night amongst the bluebells at 10.27 p.m. at the very bottom of the garden "Checking for cats!" On the video, you see he goes right into the far corner, "just in case."
Another photo of 'arry, from last night. This time he triggered the PIR on the tea-house, so not an infra-red photo. The accompanying video showed how fit he looks, with the light shining off his spikes. He's there every night searching the bottom of the garden, for bugs amongst the bamboo roots, between visits to his feed station for his "chicken dinner."
Really love seeing 'arry's antics. I've shared them with my kids...trying to convince one to take up an 'arry.
'arry must have fancied an early breakfast as he was in his feeding station for a bit of chicken (and a poo) around 9.00 p.m. whilst it was still light. He's on his way back out here. But he didn't stay long and soon made his way back to his house, (sharp left at the top of the steps). Getting up the steps is a bit of a struggle for him. But he must do it several times every night. Just about made it! I took these photos through the glass of our French windows.
He always eats all his food, though sometimes he makes a few trips to do it. When I was chopping up his sachet of "Sheba Chicken in Terrine" last night. I noticed there was a small lump of hard chicken a bit smaller than the size of a 5p piece. "I thought, I'll leave it in, he'll probably eat it." No he didn't. He took it out of his bowl and put it by the side and ate the rest.
Your 'arry is lovely and must be a very spoiled little 'harry! Our visiting hedgehogs prefer dry cat food to Sheba or similar. I have no idea why, but I love the crunch-crunch noises and the yum-yum sound they make while eating.
I do leave him a separate bowl with dry and semi-moist hedgehog food, plus some suet pellets with some bits of birds' fat ball. But he much prefers his Sheba and anything else he can find in the garden including ants.
I can hear our prickly visitors slurp on either worms or slugs, and they're more than welcome to them. If they eat some ants I won't be too sad about that either. I don't think we have special food for hedgehogs around here. I'll have to check with the hedgehog helpers. I saw the biggest one here this evening and looked extra hard on the spikes. They were shiny so I guess it's in good health.
The food I buy is from this range, I'm sure you should be able to find a supplier. https://www.spikesfood.co.uk/
@Droopy you don't need special food for them, I use a puppy dried food chicken flavour but not fish because it's small pieces and I give it dry, with a separate bowl of water.
I checked for suppliers here, then I asked on the Hedgehog Helper forum. Waiting for a reply. We have a feral cat we take care of, so we use cat food. We have served them both dry pellets and wet food. They seem to prefer the dry pellets for some reason.
This morning I was clearing up after 'arry and the birds. I frequently give the area on the patio where are the birds' ground feeder and 'arry's feeding station, a good sweep and a wash down with a hose. I wash down and scrub the base tray of 'arrys feed station over the drain below the kitchen window every day, so he has a nice clean station when I put his food in during the evening. The drain is outside the tall fence with the door between the corner of the house and the corner of the garage, so 'arry can't get out and nothing can get in. But this morning I noticed there was some hedgehog poo next to this drain. Which suggests we had a visitor. Possibly this was a male and maybe then 'arry is actually Arabella? Hopefully, I might find out when I swop over the summer and winter houses in September. It's not that important to make a point of disturbing him or her before then.
Oooh, sounds exciting! Maybe you'll have a Arabella, 'arriet, 'adrian and 'arryjunior? Is your feeding station a plastic box with a lid turned upside down with a hole cut in it? I was thinking about making one, but don't know if the three or more hedgehogs in our garden would fight to get in there.
Yes it's just an ordinary plastic box, like this. But not with a corrugated lid, a flat one. Same with the bottom, a corrugated one would make it difficult for us to see through it. You cut a 4.5 inch hole in the front and that 's it. I put his cat food dish right at the back with a hook in it which attaches to the back to stop him pushing it towards the entrance as he eats where cats could get at it. He does make a right mess in there. But at least he eats all his chicken dinner, some of his moist and dry hedgeghog pellets and some suet pellets from a small dish. He does use the water bowl, or at least washes his face in it.
