Forum menu
New vistor over the last few nights...
In the running...
Reggie Hedges
Edgy
Note the huge tick 🙁
Spike
Sonic.
(Yes, I'm equally lacking in imagination)
Sir Hoggington Smythe of Privet Hall
Boris - ‘cos he has the same hairdo and neither of them will be PM soon.
Spiny Norman
Selfish bastards. Why can't they just share the hedge?
Anyway. Conkers.
Bert
Looks like a Brian to me - or a Jane. Have you asked him/her? 🙂
Spiny Norman
Or, conversely, Dinsdale...
Bob
A friend with an imagination fostered one, she called it "Prickled Onion"
I don't have imagination, so "Tinsley"
Rover.
Sir Hoggington Smythe of Privet Hall
This surely must be the winner, despite sounding a little like a Tory mp
Fluffy
Priti - 'cos she's very spiky and has probably got all sorts of nasty diseases (and thoughts about immigrant worms)
Hedgy McHogface.
Slasher McGraw
These suggestions are great 🙂
Sir Privet Like:)
Ballsup
or
War Bastard
Cheese & Pineapple
Hugh Tickson (Hisface)
Lady Prickles of the Lyme
It might be worth getting the tick removers out and getting the big tick and any other ticks off the little beast.
It's tricky to get in between the spines but worth doing.
Karl. With a K.
is it a boy or girl?
Spot.
Or: Tiddles.
Or: NOT a BMW
Dave
Ginsters
Crunchy on the outside, soft and tasty in the middle
Paddington
Crunchy on the outside, soft and tasty in the middle
the Hogster
NYRK pronounced nerk as in "Not Yet Road Kill"
https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/new-bhps-funded-study/
When Oxford tagged and released Hedgehogs in Wytham Wood some years ago, sadly the majority found their way onto the A420 🙁
we have a rescue hedgehog, he is blind.
his name is Percy.
If or he/she is about later I'll try and capture it and get that tick off.
Whats the best way to unroll a hedgehog ?
Satans Codpiece
....for a name, not unrolling
How about 'Tory' ?
Cos he's a load of pr!cks
is it a boy or girl?
Therein lies a problem, it’s impossible to tell unless there’s two of them and it’s the mating season, because then the males start circling the females and snorting and snuffling very loudly, and I mean, loudly!
I have at least four coming into the garden every night, one has been coming for several years, and she is very distinctive, because she makes a continuous chuckling sound as she’s wandering around scoffing the bits of suet pellets the birds drop. I know it’s a female, because I’ve sat outside and watched the males paying her a lot of attention.
I was outside several evenings ago, and she was around, along with a male, but there were two others under the hedge, or on the grass, where it was dark, and one of those was making the same chuckling noise, while the other was snorting and snuffling. The original one we, my late partner and I, called Chuckles, but it’s impossible to identify individuals otherwise, unless you mark them in some way. I was toying with the idea of using blobs of coloured paint on their spines, but never bothered in the end.
There was one under the tree the other morning, about 5.30, munching on the suet pellets, surrounded by starlings all after scraps dropped from the feeders - it wasn’t a hoglet, but it wasn’t as big as the adults, possibly one of last year’s brood.
I’ve gone out a bit late in the evening to feed them, and found two sitting by the feeding station, and found another sitting on an empty plate when I took the lids off the boxes - that one wouldn’t move while I was sorting out the food, so I had to fill two plates, take the empty plate from under it’s nose, put a full one in it’s place and put the lid back on.
On another occasion, when I took the lids off the feeding boxes, there was one very large ‘hog sitting right across the empty plate, so I had to take the other plates, clean and refill them and put them back, then I had to actually pick the ‘hog up, put it down with its nose on a plate and put the lid back on the box before I could sort out the remaining plate. I could hear loud munching noises behind me as I was sorting out the last plate…
With it being so dry, it’s really necessary to put out food and water for ‘hogs, they really struggle to find any of their usual food - by trial and error, I arrived at cheap dog meat in gravy and soft creamy centred cat kibbles, like Dreamies, I buy the Wilco’s version. They really seem to like suet pellets, which is how we discovered they were coming into the garden regularly over four years ago. Cat food was suggested, which I tried, but but at least one ‘hog was a food critic and left a pig poo right in the middle of the otherwise untouched food!
I tried dog meat in jelly, they left all the jelly on the plate! Mealworms aren’t good for them, but the starlings chuck lots of bits out of the feeder in the morning, so I can’t stop them eating little bits, calciworms they like, those are rich in calcium, and don’t appear to be harmful in any way, so it might be worth putting out a couple of plates with a variety of things on, to see what the ‘hog likes, as well as a saucer of water. Do not put out milk for them! It doesn’t do their digestive system any good , but fresh water is essential - I’ve sat watching a ‘hog lapping at a saucer of water for around five minutes without stopping, which was impressive.
I had to construct feeding boxes, because the local cat population will come and plunder everything that gets put out, mine are cheap Wilco plastic storage boxes with a small doorway cut in one end, about CD sized, although a small cat can sometimes squeeze in, I’ve watched one do it! I’ve got three, arranged like the Mercedes logo, doors facing inwards, with a piece of plastic covering the middle to stop the cats getting in, with a heavy weight on the top.
Good luck, if there’s one around, then there may well be more, and they need all the help they can get. Check your garden boundary for routes they may be using, and make any openings under fences, etc a bit bigger - mine come in from either side, and they go under the fence at the end of my garden out into the housing estate beyond. Look up ‘Hedgehog highways’ there’s been a big drive to make gardens more porous for hedgehogs to enable them to move around more safely, they’re remarkably quick on their feet, and can cover a couple of kilometres a night, as they often have several sleeping spots.
The original one we had coming into the garden we called James, as in James Hogg, the Ettrick shepard. As above getting difficult to tell them apart now
All hedgehogs are called Benny. Fact.
Surname: Hedgehogs. Yes, with an 'S', don't look at me I didn't make the rules
Whats the best way to unroll a hedgehog ?
If you put them on a table the right way up, then stroke them slowly on the back they soon unroll. No idea why 🙂 What's the story with this one - is he missing an eye or is that the pic?
One of ours got a snail jammed in her mouth like a gobstopper the other day, and couldn't eat. Had to bring her in and sort her out.