Wouldn't that be wonderful to have little hedgehog babies. (swooning over here in Canada). I love reading about 'arry and everyone else's hedgehogs. Boggles my mind that you have such " littles " in your gardens- 'arry is one lucky little.
Thanks for the info @Doghouse Riley. 4,5 inches is just over 10 cm. and I have some big plastic boxes waiting to be emptied. If I get round to emptying them I will give your set-up a try. We have a big water dish/birdbath in the garden the hedgehogs use for a water bowl. The hook idea is smart too. We don't have a cat but all the neighbourhood cats like our garden.
Last night was the second consecutive night 'arry has eaten his dinner and not pooed in his feed station (a few days ago he did it in his water bowl). There was more hedgehog poo in the drive the otherside of the enclosing fence. Anyway, do you think his mother has been whispering personal hygeine instructions to him through the fence?
I've watched some videos on You-Tube on how to remove ticks from hedgehogs with a special tool. One had over forty ticks someone removed. The tools come in three different sizes. So I've orded some, they are only three quid. I'm not sure whether to check him out. But he doesn't go anywhere so couldn't have picked any up from other hedgehogs and he rarely scratches himself in the nightly videos I take. I'm loathe to disturb him unnecessarily, so I might leave it to when I take him out and swop over his houses in September and check him out then. By the way, he's stopped listening to his mother!
Good things never last, do they? We use slant-tip tweezer. It's hard to get in between the spines with the handly little thing we used on the horses, but the small tweezer does the job. Good luck with de-ticking.
Having watched a few videos of hedgehog tick removal on YouTube. I thought I'd better check 'arry out. It's a right pain to get at his house because of the cat-proof fence I'd installed and the Stella cherry tree. I had to take him out in his house as I couldn't reach down far enough to pick him up. Anyway, this is as close as I could get to him for an "examination." As he's only been handled a couple of times in his life, he's not used to human contact so was completely uncooperative. He remained tightly curled up, but unrolled just enough to see what I was doing a few times. I checked through his spines but found no ticks, but it was impossible to check his underside where if he had any they are where they are most likely to be. He's quite heavy and strong, I didn't try, but there would be no way I could uncurl him. I'm pretty sure he won't have any ticks as he doesn't come in contact with other hedgehogs or long grass. But I thought it worth trying to check. I put him in the big polystyrene box , whilst I took the opportunity to clean out his house, there was quite a bit of dried earth in the bottom, that he will have dragged in over the last few months when the ground has been wet, as he's in and out all night. So this dust might be the reason he scratches now and again. He's back in his house with all fresh clean hay and I'm none the wiser as to whether he's male or female.
Well done, you! The hedgehogs visiting our garden are wild ones, but I handle them now and then anyway to check weight and for ticks. It seems we reach an understanding after a while. They stop curling up tightly, and unroll when I scratch them behind their ears. I check them, put more food down, and leave. They sulk, forgive me, and eat. At least I think that's how it is.
I think I might have offended him by picking up his house with him in it and whisking it away to bench in my shed. When I opened the lid I'm sure he gave me a look that said, "Look! This isn't Kansas and my name ain't Dorothy!"
On Friday, I watched the video of him dragging in the hay I left on his patio the night before and I realised why he was starting so early getting ready for hibernation. Even if I provided him with all the hay he needed, it'd take him forever his progress was so slow. So "he played Dorothy again" as I changed his house over on Saturday morning. I notice that in his summer house there wasn't enough hay in it to see him through the winter. But his housekeeping was better, there was no mud on the floor of the house under the hay. It was quite clean. While the exchange was going on, he just curled up in a ball, I checked for ticks but I could see none. I did put some of his old hay in with his new hay so he would recognise the smell. There's enough to arrange his bed and block off the entrance when he needs to. I left him some extra hay on his patio but I'm not sure if he used any when I took this photo this morning. This house has thick polystyrene under the floor and roofing felt all around for better insulation. You could say it would have been a "traumatic experience," but he still came for his dinner at the usual time last night and raided the bird feeder. I guess he realises he won't come to any harm.
'arry is bulking himself up, ready for winter. He's always had dry and semi-moist hedgehog pellets plus suet pellets available as well as his sachet of catfood each night, but he rarely ate many. But now he's tucking into them and it shows. We're changing his name to "Porky." Out in the rain the other night. Yesterday, a golfing pal mentioned that when he went to his car the other night, a huge hedgehog he noticed, appear from under it. He said several had been run over in his road this year. At least 'arry is in a safe environment.
Happy 'harry, I'm sure, even though he's been moved about inside his house. So, I need to find some material, more hay, and maybe manage to build an inviting winter hibernation cave for a hedgehog, then. I guess they need to get ready soon here too.
Checking on his feeder this morning, I was surprised to find that all his dry and semi-moist hedgehog pellets and the suet ones had gone. This aroused my suspicions, so I checked the camera. Caught in the act! The pesky grey cat had managed to squeeze in while the black and white one stood and watched! (he'd be too big) It will have been the first time it had got in as the camera hadn't picked him up doing it on any other night. Do I hate cats! 'arry had been in earlier so at least he got his chicken slices. Problem. what to do. These plastic boxes are a pain, they don't cut easily and tend to split. I needed to reduce the aperture. I did it by finding the lid of an old kibbled nut container and managed to cut a smaller hole in it. I'd been a bit generous with the original hole, but this one I made only 4" in diameter. I'm working on the premise if 'arry is happy enough to squeeze under the top of the bird feeder, he'll get through this. I covered it in black tape so it looked much like the old entrance and screwed it on. The big brick will go back on the top when I put the food in tonight. I'll be checking the camera again as usual tomorrow. I've left some more hay on his patio. He'd taken in the handful I left the day before yesterday.
I put 2 house bricks on top of each other in front of the feeding station and just enough space for the hedgehogs to get in, that will stop the cats.
