Hedgehog questions.

I think it's a case of all for one and one for all.

How about the names  Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

Robert

Hi. some years ago I successfully overwintered an autumn infant. I called her Squeak, as when I held her she pawed at me and squeaked. Overwintering is not easy, we kept her in a box like a rabbit hutch in a spare bedroom. You have to keep them awake all winter by proving exactly the right temperature- we obtained a heater from a zoo supplier. Tiny as she was (4ozs) she built her own nest in the sleeping compartment. from newspaper and straw. It was a lot of work but wonderful, towards release time I had to teach her to be nocturnal by witholding food until after dark- she banged her food dish against the bars in temper! We put her box in an old aviary in May, and made a tunnel underneath it. I vidioed all the winter and the release-which took her three hours. Two weeks later she retuned with a mate, for several years I sat in the garden every night and filmed them, including several matings, in the end I had about 10 hogs visiting- sometimes the babies would blunder into my feet and climb up onto my lap. I could tell them apart from quill patterns and one called Speedy, loved chicken bones. I had several successful hibernations-always solitary in seperate boxes, waiting to see if they emerge the next spring was awful, but only one died. Sadly they all suddenly disapeared and I haven't seen any signs of them for 28 months-but keep hoping.

You need to stand the hog houses on slabs or similar as rats can tunnel in from underneath.

Have fun!

min said:

Hi. some years ago I successfully overwintered an autumn infant. I called her Squeak, as when I held her she pawed at me and squeaked. Overwintering is not easy, we kept her in a box like a rabbit hutch in a spare bedroom. You have to keep them awake all winter by proving exactly the right temperature- we obtained a heater from a zoo supplier. Tiny as she was (4ozs) she built her own nest in the sleeping compartment. from newspaper and straw. It was a lot of work but wonderful, towards release time I had to teach her to be nocturnal by witholding food until after dark- she banged her food dish against the bars in temper! We put her box in an old aviary in May, and made a tunnel underneath it. I vidioed all the winter and the release-which took her three hours. Two weeks later she retuned with a mate, for several years I sat in the garden every night and filmed them, including several matings, in the end I had about 10 hogs visiting- sometimes the babies would blunder into my feet and climb up onto my lap. I could tell them apart from quill patterns and one called Speedy, loved chicken bones. I had several successful hibernations-always solitary in seperate boxes, waiting to see if they emerge the next spring was awful, but only one died. Sadly they all suddenly disapeared and I haven't seen any signs of them for 28 months-but keep hoping.

You need to stand the hog houses on slabs or similar as rats can tunnel in from underneath.

Have fun!

Wow lovely story Min.Sad they have all gone though.We had them for many years but since we moved they can not access our garden.Still, we know they are around. 

You lucky thing :) Great house. In my experience, solitary hibernating is the norm but they will certainly snuggle up together if there's a nice place and more than one hog.

Just one little note - best not to give them cheese as they find dairy hard to digest and it can cause diarrhoea.

Oh and don't forget to weigh any and all hedgies seen from now until the spring. They must weigh at least 450g to hibernate safely. Any weighing less need to be rescued and fattened up.