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Hedgehog behaviour

Two hedgehogs visit my garden every night. One of them just comes in for the food through a hole in the fence but the other one hangs around in the garden and has a peculiar habit of walking backwards and forwards in front of the back gate for minutes at a time. This leaves a brown stain or trail on the paving stones by the gate. It also poos by the gate. Is it marking its territory?
  • Hi Susan, you need the advice of our resident expert MadPenguin for this one ... I have alerted her to your query by PM & hope she will answer soon!

  • I am not too sure about this but it does sound a bit like territory marking of some sort.Hedgehogs do leave a lot of mess around and it does not always look like poo!!

    Males do walk round females in the mating ritual so maybe it is something to do with that.

    Sorry I cannot be more help but if I find anything more I will let you know.

  • We saw a hedgehog in daylight, at about 12.30. Is this unusual? I thought they were nocturnal? This one was snuffing slowly about on the lawn.There are certainly plenty of slugs and insects in it. We didn't dare get too close to it for fear of scaring it off. That bit of the garden doesn't get visited much this time of the year (though the lawn did get hopefully its last mow of the season today), but there are plenty of plies of wood and wood chipping, leaves and compost heaps nearby for it to hide in.

    If we wanted to feed it, what would you put down? We wondered about putting a little pile near where we saw it of fresh beef suet, which they sell in the local farmer's market for £1 a kilo. We were a bit concerned about attracting rats and cats, though. Or should we assume it is getting what it needs from the many slugs still in action in this very mild autumn?

  • just bumping your post up Ginnymay as I'm no expert on hedgehogs but I do think that a hedgehog that is seen out during the middle of the day will be a poorly hedgehog, as you say, they are usually nocturnal animals.    As far as I know folk tend to put down a little tinned cat food for them which is moist, not sure about beef suet but sure the more knowledgeable folk on here can advise about that.    Just don't give it milk to drink - only water is safe  !     but sure you know this already.    

  • Sorry to highjack your thread Susan but your question and MPs answer has me thinking as our neighbour had a Hedgehog in his garden that suddenly disappeared. He thought foxes could have been the cause due to stains on his lawn but could the Hedgehog have made these stains MP?

  • Thanks, Hazy. I also wondered if it might be ill, to be out in broad daylight. It seemed to be pottering happily enough, not staggering or staying still. And there has been plenty for it to eat and no frost, so it shouldn't have been starving. We found a dead fox in the garden earlier this year, no sign of injury, so I wondered if someone is putting down rat poison in meat.

  • You're welcome Ginnymay,  it's possible both the fox and hedgehog have consumed some sort of poison put down for vermin but hard to say for definite without a post mortem on the dead fox, however, if you see the hedgehog again during daylight hours it may be best to try capture it and get it some assistance.   Heres a website which gives advice on how to go about it and another link to the same website for wildlife rescue and information.   Good luck,  hedgehogs need all the help we can give them.    Finally, thank you for caring enough to ask for advice for the Hedgehog.  

  • Yes I agree with Hazy, if the hedgehog is around in the daytime it usually is poorly, keep an eye on it and feed it if you can with the cat food or soaked dog food.  If you can catch it and get any help then that would be the best solution.  We have two coming at night at present but earlier on this year there was a small one during the day which I suspect had been poisoned and it died before I could get it any help.