Hedgehogs in Pairs?

[Little Bird]

Hi everyone!
I have a couple of hedgehogs that visit my garden regularly - I feed them mealworms, chopped peanuts and whiskas supermeat catfood, which they clearly adore! A few weeks ago I saw two together, snorting and one almost butting the other on the side, which I thought might be mating behaviour, but it was really late in the year. I didn't see the two together again until a few days ago, one seemed to visit about 9pm and the other came much later. Now I have two appearing together early in the evening, eating side by side, ignoring but acknowledging each other, without any physical contact. Its lovely but very confusing, I thought they were solitary animals and avoided any contact with each other apart from mating...Any thoughts?

[Jez]

Sorry I think I need bifocals. I read this as Hedgehogs In Paris!

[Hedgehoggy]

I also read this post as Hedgehogs in Paris!

Hedgehogs are solitary creatures, but they will feed alongside each other. Sometimes, you might find one of them is rather intolerant to share the food and will butt and snort the others out of the way! Most evenings I have 5 feeding in my garden at the same time, all in relative harmony.

In the mating courtship the male hedgehog will make huffing noises whilst circling the female (sometimes for hours if necessary lol). Hedgehogs also have a second litter in the Autumn, and it's these babies which need to go into care for overwintering as they will unlikely reach 600g before hibernation.

[Tangaroa]

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

I also read this post as Hedgehogs in Paris!
Hedgehogs also have a second litter in the Autumn, and it's these babies which need to go into care for overwintering as they will unlikely reach 600g before hibernation.

This always seems strange to me.......do they struggle to put weight on because of something that has changed - Less food/changing climate - otherwise it seems like a flaw in their evolution

Although im pretty sure you will tell me the real reason

[Hedgehoggy]

Climate plays a major part in their second litters. A female hedgehog normally gives birth in April or May, and may have a second litter in September (in the 6 years I've lived in West Yorkshire, I've always had autumn babies brought into care around Oct/Nov time, so it will be interesting to see if I have any this winter after our non-existent summer and equally horrid start to Autumn!).

During spells of exceptionally warm weather in early autumn, hedgehogs will give birth much later than usual. The young of this very late second litter, who are born after a gestation period of four weeks, spend less time with their mother, as she soon goes into hibernation.

As a result, the young do not put on enough body weight to hibernate and so starve as their food sources disappear in the winter.

BTW, hedgehogs have been around for a cool 15 million years so you'd think they would have evolved NOT to have this second litter, but I guess they're duped by our unpredictable weather just like the rest of our wildlife.

P.S. Forgot to mention, weather last weekend was glorious here (for a change!), and a male hoggy was trying his hardest to woo a female! I'm just hoping the female didn't give in to his advances otherwise there will be teeny babies being born at the end of October.

On another note, I had Bullfinch fledglings being fed by their parents in my garden at the beginning of September last year. Whether this was due to climate change or failed earlier nesting attempts, I've no idea.

[steve deighton]

yes hedgehogs are solitary animals but during colder times they do feed together when food is scarse as to them snorting at each other this is part of the breding process a litter is usually born between september and october and this litter will struggle to get upto full weight for hibernation unfortunatlly.

[Little Bird]

It was the possiblility of the second litter that concerned me, I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled and if I see any weeny ones either contact my nearest hog rescue or overwinter them myself. Although lets hope that the female was strong and told the male to wait until spring

[Morph]

I have a Hedgehog and 2 young visiting my garden every night for catfood and peanuts. I know this sublect has probably been covered before in these forums but when is the best time to stop feeding them. I have read somewhere that if you dont stop they won't hibernate.

[Hedgehoggy]

Hedgehogs will hibernate whether you leave food out for them or not. All the hedgehogs I've overwintered in the past have all gone into hibernation at some stage, whether they've been indoors or in my garage!

As soon as I notice the hogs have stopped coming into my garden to feed, I reduce the amount of food I leave out for them to just a small dish of cat biscuits and peanuts (and fresh water) for any who may briefly wake up during their big sleep.

Hope this answers your concern and that you continue to feed our prickly visitors at a time when they need it most

[Morph]

Originally Posted by Hedgehoggy

Hedgehogs will hibernate whether you leave food out for them or not. All the hedgehogs I've overwintered in the past have all gone into hibernation at some stage, whether they've been indoors or in my garage!

As soon as I notice the hogs have stopped coming into my garden to feed, I reduce the amount of food I leave out for them to just a small dish of cat biscuits and peanuts (and fresh water) for any who may briefly wake up during their big sleep.

Hope this answers your concern and that you continue to feed our prickly visitors at a time when they need it most

Yes thank you, and we will keep feeding them, we actually have to try and keep them out of our garage or they eat the cats food as well