I think, Hettie and Stumpy are now a couple. In the video it looked like Stripe was trying to get in the house but the other hedgehog was blocking its way.
A lot of activity around the first house last night. I didn't put any more food outside it last night, as there appeared to have been no visits the night before. But Hetti turned up several times and so did the fox. I've found out how he gets in. He forces his way between the stakes and the side fence. He spent some time scrabbling around in the dirt looking for old pellets. He even attempted to get at the pellet dish in the corridor outside the bottom house. Didn't stop hedgehogs coming and going around this house. "> Everyone needs a drink, even a mouse. I'm feeling quite sorry for the fox. It must be really hungry I'm going to beef up the security of the house next to the patio, but I'll start leaving some cat food I've got, on the patio next to the shed. That hopefully, will stop him trying to get at the hedgehogs' food. It was a golf day today, played rubbish but parred all four par threes, that's the way it goes. I watched some tennis this afternoon then got into sorting out the house. As I needed to do quite a lot, to see how much disturbance I could make, I checked on the house. I was pretty sure it was unoccupied, which proved to be the case. So I strengthened the side fence with some lateral green rods and I made an overhang for the roof of the house from bits of a couple of spare Wanylap panels. I had some spare roof tiles which I used to extend the patio. I'm not going to put any more food out for this house until and unless it gets a new occupant. If it does, I'll just spread it on the tiles, as foxes can't resist those little white bowls. The temporary canopy, secured by three bricks on the end should keep any food dry. I'll leave the camera still focussed on it, to see what happens. So it looks like Hettie and Stumpy are co-habiting the house at the bottom of the garden. If so, they are better off in that one, as it has more insulation than the other one, so will be better for them in the winter.
Those look like good security improvements. It sounds like the love birds are enjoying their accommodations. That fox is persistent. He just keeps coming.
Thanks for that. I gave the area outside the house a good sweep before I put the tiles down. Now I'm pretty sure the fox won't bother trying to get inside the fence any more, as he'll see there's no food, so I've decided not to put any food out for it. As everything seems more secure, I don't want to encourage it. Anyway, if I put any food out, we'll get more cats in the garden, so there's no guarantee that they won't get the food, before the fox comes later.
It’s a good way to keep them safe from cats in the neighborhood. Maybe you’ll find egged in their safe house? When do they breed? If male and female hard to tell. I will have to look up and find info on these lil creatures.
There's a way to tell, it's about the position of their sexual organs, the male's I believe, is further forward. However, getting them to "show you theirs" even if you "showed them yours," is unlikely, as they will just curl up in a ball. Stripe was the only visitor to the old house last night. As there was no food outside the house, didn't go in, probably visited the bird feeder further to the left. There was quite a bit of drinking at the other house, but difficult to tell which ones. There was no sighting of the fox. But.. "Be afraid, be very afraid!" Not really, this was at half-past six this morning, when everyone had been in bed for hours, or left the garden. Not even the fox bothers them. "Smile! You're on camera!"
You’re on candid camera… I wonder if the cat is a feral or domestic pet. black and white cats referred to as a tuxedo cat…
Hettie is still making visits to the old house, but really only going past it to get to the bird food on a big saucer to the left. There was another visitor but at around 7.00am. "> There were a lot of visits to the water bowls outside the house next to the back fence, last night, which is making me think that we're getting visitors. So I've moved the camera to cover the hole in the base panel to see if any hedgehogs are coming and going.
We've only one hedgehog in residence, presumably the others just come and go, treating the house as a restaurant. One hedgehog can't eat all the pellets in the dish. I'll have to get some more on Thursday.
