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Hedgehogs - drunk?

OK, second silly question of the night....

We have the occasional hedgehog in the garden. In fact (s)he is so desperate to get into the garden (s)he's dug a channel under the gate to get in. We have a snail problem and I don't like putting down slug pellets so I'm going to put down a beer trap. Will the hedgehog eat these from the trap and if so will (s)he get drunk?

....vivid images of a drunken hedgehog staggering around the garden singing his / her little head off....

I also think the hedgehog is removing, and eating, the fat ball I put down on the ground feeder for the blackbirds. Will that do him / her any harm?

  • Paula....still laughing at the thought of hedgehog singing its little head off. Why don't you make the channel bigger so that s/he can bring friends to the 'Ugly Bug Ball'? They can also feast on the slugs/snails.

    Why don't you put out some dog/cat food for h/hog...they love it and it will not touch the beer!!!!!

    If the hedgehog starts flying you'll know the fat balls are not good for it. :o )

  • Well I did suggest to hubby that we could chop a bit of one on the slats on the gate but he wasn't impressed. Spoilsport! We put down proper hedgehog food for him / her along with fresh water inside an up-turned box. The food vanishes but whether it's him / her that's eating it I don't know. Have followed "guidelines" on the internet about usng these "feeding stations" to make sure cats etc can't get in but we have a resident mouse as well so it could well be him / her. I fancy a cctv thing for the garden but I bet that'll cost a fortune. It is my birthday soon.....

     Hedgehog baby from last year (oh how I wish that weed wasn't in the way)

    Resident mouse ....

     

  • Hi Paula,

    The CCTV might cost les than you think. RSPB shops are selling one that comes in at about £90 and it is available from the catalogue and on the internet too.

    As for the prospect of drunk hedgehjogs, i know they do get drunk on rotten fallen apples, so they do like a tipple from time to time. Maybe the best thing to do is to put a roof over the beer trap, with a small gap underneath. Slugs will like it even more then as it will be dark and shady, whilst it will prevent your 'hog getting sozzled.

  • Hi Chris

    Many thanks for your response. You're right, it doesn't cost as much as I thought. I do like that..and the price! I'll see if I can find out more about it (best place to put it for best view etc) and then drop some serious hints to hubby that I'd like some dosh to put towards it!

    Of course I'm going to be so disappointed if I find it's the mouse that's eating all the food! No, I have found hog poo so I know they do visit.

    Thanks again :)

  • Paula

    Your pics. are brilliant!!    The wee mouse is lovely and looks as if it is enjoying the food and the baby hedgehog is gorgeous. Ahhhh!

    A few years ago I had hedgehogs mating in the garden, what a noise they were making, I thought they were fighting!!!! But I haven't seen or HEARD any since. However, I do have a fox which comes EVERY night for her supper. She has been coming for the past 7yrs., having said that she is probably the offspring of the original.

    Last year she 'brought' three cubs with her, it was great to see them all.  I feel so privileged that little  wild creatures 'pick' my garden and feel secure enough to visit.

    Have a happy birthday and I hope you get the gift that you want :o )

    Maureen x

  • Thank you Maureen. Now that the images seem to be working again I'll upload some to my Gallery as the last ones still haven't reappeared :( My birthday isn't until the 30th so I've a wee while to wait but seriously dropped hints about it. (ok, I told him!) Of course I'll have all the "problems" of getting the cable into the house blah blah blah...

     

    To anyone out there....do you have the cctv Chris mentions above? I'd like to know what it's like and what sort of pictures you receive from it.

  • Hi Paula,

    At Top Lodge (do pop in for a visit if you are anywhere near North Northamptonshire) we use the system in a blue tit nestbox. Lovely clear colour images during the day, and infra-red ones at night. Sound too. The system is also available without the nestbox and is extremely easy to fit. It comes with something like 30m of cable, and can just plug straight into the back of your TV. We had a couple of CCTV experts round recently as we are looking to expand our range of cameras, and they were rather impressed by it. 

  • Hi Chris

    Thanks again for your reply...you are a wee gem, aren't you? I wish I could pop into Top Lodge but it's a long way from Aberdeen to be "passing through" but if I'm ever in the area I'll pay a visit.

    As I want it to try and catch the hedgehog (and whatever left an unidentified poop recently) in the garden I was wondering what sort of range it had.

    I didn't realise it had sound too. Oh how very exciting...if if it might mean hearing hogs mating!

    Thanks again :-)

  • I have a resident hedgehog in my garden, goodness knows where it came from as I live in a very built up part of London.  It sleeps at the base of my bamboo.  I put out any of the meat based cat food my mog wastes (but nothing with gravy and definitely no fish flavour as apparently these aren't good for hedgehogs).  I also buy hedgehoge biscuits.  They are chicken based and look like cat biscuits.  They are called Spike's Dinner'.  Hedgehog seems to love those and crunches noisily away on them.  I leave some water in a shallow bowl next to it to save the hedgehog from trying to drink from my small pond and accidentally falling in.  Unfortunately my spikey resident has done nothing to quell the snail and slug problem in my garden.  Does seem to like worms though.

     

     

  • We have 3 hedgehogs visiting our garden each evening for their dinner and they all seem to come at different times. We have a baby hog who always comes at 9pm prompt, infact, the other evening when I went to put dinner out (at 9.10pm) he was waiting by the bowl for it! 

     A few months back we had a poorly hog in the garden, he had cut his neck and was having trouble breathing. We took him to Tiggywinkles, our nearest wildlife hospital, and apparantly he's going to make a good recovery and will then be released at one of their release sites. They had over 400 hog casualties when we visited them.

    We've  now joined Tiggywinkles and  the British Hedgehog Preservation Society as like lots of wild animals hogs are now in decline and need all the help we can give them.

    PS: we also bought a Hedgehog House from our local garden centre last autumn and 3 hogs hibernated successfully in it over the winter - so it's worth the investment.