Rejoice with me!

[vole-woman]

I've often sighed with envy when reading all the 'Here's another hedgehog in our garden' posts. I put up a hedgehog house last year and had nothing in it, and was positively green with jealousy when a friend down the road, who's not that interested in wildlife, said she'd had a hog on her path.

But last night I was staring out of the window looking for bats, and a hedgehog ran towards my back door and started sniffing round in our wallflower bed. I didn't like to hassle him/her, but I did manage to get one photo which I've stuck on my blog.

I was so excited afterwards, I couldn't sleep! Isn't nature fantastic?

[mrs fish]

Lovely garden visitor

[Jez]

At long last-brilliant news Vole-woman, I hope she sticks around and finds the home you have waiting for him/her?! Congrats and yer nature is magical

[pressld2]

I'll certainly join in the rejoicing Vole-woman! Mine has only been visiting for a month or so but is now a regular nightly visitor. I can recommend "Spike's Dinner" dry hedgehog food - he cleans his plate every night. We put it right by the patio doors so we can sit inside and watch him through the glass from about 18 inches away. Brilliant!

Dave P.

[vole-woman]

I wondered about some Spike's Dinner, but isn't there a risk it might attract rats? We had a rat this winter, as a direct result (I think) of my over-loading the bird feeder.

[witham]

I'm really pleased for you, trouble is rats can be a problem with whatever you're feeding, each evening we put food out on the edge of our field where we have seen signs of the local Badger, it always gets eaten and we can see where he's been rooting about, we even made a sand trap and have seen where its left its pad prints , but we often wonder what else is taking advantage of our offerings as you say it's the same with the bird tables etc so it's perhaps something we have to accept, they used to say you're never more than six feet away from a rat but I read it's less than that now with the breeding explosion because of the mild winters

[pressld2]

I think witham is right, it's a risk whatever you put out.

So far, apart from the hedgehog, I've only see one cat helping itself before I chased it off.

Dave P.

[cat72uk]

cool congrzt
i have put up a house last year but no one moved in
i heard they like meal worms is that true?

[demicav]

That's great news, I'm very happy for you.

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by cat72uk

i have put up a house last year but no one moved in

I just spent the day building a house based on a design I found at British Hedgehog Preservation Society. I did the "Council Tax Band H" one...



All the wood was recovered from an old pine bed that we replaced with a divan a couple of years ago. Even the screws were re-used. The only thing in the construction that hadn't been used before was the wood glue which I used mainly to ensure that all joints are weather proof.

The only thing I haven't done yet is the ventilation but I have some off-cuts of 3/4" plastic overflow pipe in my garage which will do the job.

The web site says not to treat the wood but it'll be lucky to last a year if I don't. I'm very tempted to use a water based, pet-friendly preservative on the outside. I've used this on bird boxes and the birds have been fine. Does anyone have any advice to offer on this? Are hedgehogs likely to gnaw on the wood?

Dave P.