hedgehog advice please!

[bluebelluk]

i've been lucky to have resident hedgehogs in my garden for a number of years now....and while i'm not an expert, i have taken time to read up on them to become more acquainted with their habits....

every evening i put out spike's dinner and water for them....i've even constructed a little "feeding house" for them as i noticed cats and birds were stealing their food....

to date i've "rescued" three who were out in the daylight hours wandering aimlessly during winter months and took them to st tiggywinkles.....and while i was glad to help, i was sorry to lose some of my population.....

anyway, i was out the other evening and counted six!.....four of them were decent sizes so i'm sure will be fine over winter......two were quite small and of course i was concerned.....so i consulted st tiggywinkles' website and read that they should be about 600g to survive the winter hibernation....it also had advice about overwintering a hedgehog should they be too small to survive outdoors....

i'm of the persuasion that i would prefer not to intervene with wildlife.....i'd rather let them alone as much as possible.....but i felt it right to weigh the smallest.....tonight i was able to catch one of them and it weighed in at 270g......

i wasn't entirely sure what the best plan of action should be......i did ring st tiggywinkles' and she said it is possible i could keep it in a secure place with bedding, food, and water and fatten it up over the next few weeks and hope it puts on the required weight......at that point i could release it and it could hibernate as normal.....

i realise they don't hibernate just yet, but the literature i read on their website said if one finds hedgehogs from end of september onwards that don't make the 600g weight, then it's possible they won't be fit enough for hibernation.....

i really don't want to keep the hedgehog indoors if it's not required at this time, as i say, i don't like to intervene with wildlife if at all possible.....but i also worry about it putting on the weight in the coming few weeks.....

any advice?

[Jez]

Hi & welcome Bluebelluk.

Something very similar happened to a hoggy this time last year, that 1 of our members found! If you trawl through the mammal section to Hedgehog Pictures, you'll see the success she had, with helping a underweight hog back gain a few grams needed for hibernating ! I hope her posts help you and I wish your hog the best of care & good winter snoozing!

Cheers

Jez

[Hedgehoggy]

Hi bluebelluk. 270g is too small to be able to gain sufficient weight to hibernate at this time of year. At the moment, it will be burning up so many calories just trying to keep warm while still outside. The little hoglet would really benefit from being taken indoors, or kept in a rabbit hutch (or similar construction) in a shed/garage and fed regular meals until it reaches required hibernation weight of 650g. If done now, there's still a good chance it can be fattened up and released before the really cold winter sets in. If it doesn't reach required weight, you'll need to keep him till the spring!

As an example, I had a 300g baby brought to me on 2nd October. He's in a rabbit hutch (on a heatpad) in my garage and last night weighed in at 537g, thats a 237g weight gain in just 19 days! At this rate, he'll be ready for release within the next two weeks

As long as they're not sick, hoglets are extremely easy to overwinter. Nearly all the hoggys I've looked after have used a small cat litter tray to do their business in! I use Bio-Catolet which is 100% biodegradable and environment-friendly and can be composted. To begin with I sprinkle the cat litter with a little soil from the garden and some dried leaves. If you only have one or two hoggys to look after, you could just use soil, but if you have more than two to look after it adds to your workload to keep having to go outside (especially in the rain) to dig up the soil. As I'm typing this it has just occurred to me that I should dig up enough soil to store in my garage, then I wouldn't have to use the Bio-Catolet, lol

Good luck with your little hoglet. Any queries or advice, just shout!