Hi all - I have a bit of a dilemma with a rogue hedgehog!
3-4 days ago, when I was taking the pans out of one of the Happy Hutches, I noticed some bizarre-looking poop in there. I had a quick squizz at the Internet and basically became pretty convinced that it was hedgehog poop.
I cleaned the straw (and poop) out of that Happy Hutch and have continued to feed in just the one hutch, as Rudi and Little Cow don't seem to have any problems sharing the hutch (as long as they don't see the other going in!). Moreover, I realised that they were giving the 'mystery poop' hutch a wide berth, as if the interloper had 'scented' it in some way.
The last few days I've been having some lovely bonding sessions with Rudi on the back step of the house. This usually involved my sitting on the step with food (and, importantly, special cat milk and treats) near me while Rudi rubs around me, demanding strokes and love before he tucks in to his hard-earned food (dry - Burgess, wet - it depends. They seem to like variety). Anyway, last night I left the remaining food out there when I went to bed and, through my night vision scope, I saw him tucking in with gusto. Tonight, we've had the same routine. Only this time there's no Rudi, just a prickly little chap sat on our back step filling his face!! It's very cute, but it does pose a bit of an issue.
I guess the easy solution is to take all food in at night. But both Rudi (and to a lesser degree, Little Cow) are pretty nocturnal so I'd really rather not upset their routines. In England (and, I'm assuming, elsewhere), having hedgehogs around is considered a sign of a really healthy patch of land and they do wonders for the garden so I'd actually like for the prickly ones to hang around. It's just I'd rather they don't eat the cat food!! Are there ways of handling this, other than the easy solution? I've had two thoughts:
1) lift the boxes up to a decent height....but hedgehogs can climb, I guess?
2) just go with and put extra food out!
You know, this may be why Little Cow in particular seems to do all her feeding during the day!
bests
3-4 days ago, when I was taking the pans out of one of the Happy Hutches, I noticed some bizarre-looking poop in there. I had a quick squizz at the Internet and basically became pretty convinced that it was hedgehog poop.
I cleaned the straw (and poop) out of that Happy Hutch and have continued to feed in just the one hutch, as Rudi and Little Cow don't seem to have any problems sharing the hutch (as long as they don't see the other going in!). Moreover, I realised that they were giving the 'mystery poop' hutch a wide berth, as if the interloper had 'scented' it in some way.
The last few days I've been having some lovely bonding sessions with Rudi on the back step of the house. This usually involved my sitting on the step with food (and, importantly, special cat milk and treats) near me while Rudi rubs around me, demanding strokes and love before he tucks in to his hard-earned food (dry - Burgess, wet - it depends. They seem to like variety). Anyway, last night I left the remaining food out there when I went to bed and, through my night vision scope, I saw him tucking in with gusto. Tonight, we've had the same routine. Only this time there's no Rudi, just a prickly little chap sat on our back step filling his face!! It's very cute, but it does pose a bit of an issue.
I guess the easy solution is to take all food in at night. But both Rudi (and to a lesser degree, Little Cow) are pretty nocturnal so I'd really rather not upset their routines. In England (and, I'm assuming, elsewhere), having hedgehogs around is considered a sign of a really healthy patch of land and they do wonders for the garden so I'd actually like for the prickly ones to hang around. It's just I'd rather they don't eat the cat food!! Are there ways of handling this, other than the easy solution? I've had two thoughts:
1) lift the boxes up to a decent height....but hedgehogs can climb, I guess?
2) just go with and put extra food out!
You know, this may be why Little Cow in particular seems to do all her feeding during the day!
bests