Lovely pics, mousie is very cute!
There is lots of stuff we can do for our hoggies if we are lucky enough to have them visiting. You probably know all this but for anybody who doesn't......
A shallow dish of water and some cat food every night in a covered feeding station (I use a large rooftile on bricks, very fancy) is welcome.
Also, monitor them, it is really fascinating, I pop a wee splodge of different colour nail varnish on the spines so I can tell them apart and every now and then weigh them and check them for tick and fleas or any other problems. Do wear gardening gloves 'cos a) is good practice b) their prickles hurt and c) it is possible to catch ringworm from them!
Major flea infestations can be treated with Johnsons small aninmal/bird powder, dusted away from the head.
Ticks can be removed carefully with a tick lasso, I use tweezers now but you have to be careful not to leave the headparts in so if in doubt leave the odd tick as they will drop off anyway.
Have little holes in your fences between gardens as hogs need to travel a fair bit to get enough food in a night.
Any poorly hogs such as those out in the day (unless they are big fat mummy hogs looking for nesting material) any heavily infested with ticks or coughing or underweight should be taken to a carer. British Hedgehog preservation Society
www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk or
Epping Forest Hedgehog website
www.hedgehoghelp.co.uk are very useful. One of my regulars is with a carer now being treated for lungworm, I hadn't seen her for a few nights & finally found her coughing and poorly in next doors greenhouse. Hopefully she will pull through ok.
You can tell if a hog is underweight by looking at it curled up, if its bum end is rounded it is a good weight, if it tapers then it is underweight and needs help.
Such lovely appealing little creatures in dire need of our help. Lots of information on tinternet as well
Jo X
