Garden visitor Autumn 2006

2006

On 11th September 2006, we discovered by noises of rustling underneath our garden shed, we had a visitor! This visitor was a young animal sleeping under our shed in a plastic carrier bag, and patrolling our garden at night.

This visitor was nicknamed "Spiny Norman" by one of us, but just refered to as the Hedgehog normally.

So what is amazing about this? Well put simply the small gardens around here are not normal Hedgehog territory, and the hedgehog ended up in a walled garden, with no access except by climbing over brick walls. Hedgehogs are good at climbing, but not brick walls 1 to 2 metres high or taller!

So after some research we sorted out what to do, as we could not at the time just put the hedgehog back over the wall as this would have placed the hedgehog into building and landscaping zones, or busy traffic. We are helping the hedgehog stay for this Autumn and hopefully hibernate over the Winter, then we will release the hedgehog over the allotment, early spring. This way the hedgehog will be close to a park, more likely to find a mate, and we may benefit from a natural slug eater on the allotment (just got to tell other allotment holders NOT to use slug pellets).

Despite the old wives tales if you come across one do NOT feed them milk and bread, it is not their natural diet and will KILL them! Consider how many wild animals do you see milking cows and baking bread? Cow's milk is very different to hedgehog milk, in the same way that all other mammals have different milk (even humans).

For more information see sites like

• CRASH - Care Rehabilitation and Aid for Sick Hedgehogs - www.hedgehogs.org.uk
• BHPS - British Hedgehog Preservation Society - www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk

What is good is that although this youngster appears to be from an early Spring litter, and has got used to us, the hedgehog still rolls up into a defensive ball when approached. This is usually what happens when we have had to extricate the hedgehog from the house, after one of the hedgehog's many travels 'exploring' the house. To be on the safe side of not transferring too many smells, this is done with thick gloves, and much 'grunting' and indignance from the hedgehog.

We know the hedgehog has put on weight as the size and weight increase can be noted from when the hedgehog is lifted out of the house, also when the hedgehog goes under the shed, when at first seen could almost run under the shed where as before hibernation, the strategy was to 'bottom' out and wriggle underneath.

Currently we are putting out dry cat food for the hedgehog, however using cat food is not always helpful to tell if the hedgehog is eating as some of the local cats, will try to eat his food as well, not always successfully.

To see pictures and descriptions see the main Diary page for larger pictures.

2007

At Easter we noticed the hedgehog had come out of hibernation, so we are starting to feed him, in preparation for finding the hedgehog in a new home in early May.

To see pictures and descriptions see the 2007 Diary page for larger pictures.