General Chat

Annina, I have just had a giggle over the beer for the slugs lol I have never heard of anyone buying beer, however cheap, especially for them to expire in lol

My baby was there again tonight, tucking in, he is growing bigger by the day so should be nice and healthy to last the winter especially if I make him a house.

Will keep you posted, going to slow down with the food supply this week so he doesn't come while I am away or if he does there will just be slugs and snails.

Lizx

Hi ladies, I'm glad you all love your wildlife as much as me. Be warned though, it can get to be expensive. I boil the equivelent of a large chichen a day, also put out as and when, cat food, tinned and dry.

We live in town now, but are country bumpkins by birth, and my hubby says that he has never been so close to wild animals. He regularly sits up all night (retired now) just watching the family of foxes, and hedgehogs, all feeding from the same dish, along with countless cats.

I also buy tins of cheap beer to euthenise the slugs, well, they die happy,

We used to live in the middle of nowhere, with a glass 'lean to' ( I wouldn't give it the status of conservatory LOL) with a gap where my cats could come 7 go through the night. The cats were fed out there as well.
I used to regularly see a queue - cats & hedgehogs having their fill.

However, I did take umbrage when I saw the cats on a shelf watching the queue - hedgehogs and the biggest rat I'd ever seen!!!
The cats I had then were big and regularly hunted - but they had no intention fo confronting the rat in a confined space, so I went out to chase it away (hoping once it was in the open the cats would have a go), but it didn't move!

This got scary, so I got a hoe - it got even scarier - rat still wouldn't move and didn't appreciate me attacking it with the hoe. Couldn't give in and eventually I killed it - had to, by now it was riled and going for my face!

A few years later, one of my daughters friends found a (wild) baby rat in the underground, picked it up and started keeping it as a pet. She (the rat) came to live with us after a few months, and was lovey - very intelligent and rather cuddly! Made me feel soooo guilty for killing the giant earlier!

Hi Maggie, it says on the sites not to give them bread and milk, but mine love granary type bread, soaked in water, and I add cat biscuits, stale cheese, (little one was scuttling off into the bushes but came out again after I had thrown out some scraps of stale cheese for him just now and he ' vacuumed' them up quickly lol) I had some middle bits of marrow a while back and all those got eaten, also cat or dog food but not the fishy sort, chicken is apparently best for them. I put all scraps out and they can eat what they want and the birds eat the rest next morning.

Little one is now twice the size he was when I first met him and he comes alone now, altho ma and pa turn up sometimes too, later on! They get earlier and earlier now the nights pull in so fast.

Lizx

Shirley - it probably didn't have babies - they would have been with her! I have hedgehogs in the garden and mum and babies 'snuffle' together until babies are a certain age - then mum 'throws' them out to fend for themselves.
Sharron,
I never thought about putting the cats leftovers out for the hedgehogs! I have no idea what they live on - my garden is overrun with slugs & snails - and I have slow worms that (in theory) live on the slimy creatures as well!
No point in putting it out for local strays/cats with worms (always hungry) or local thugs - they just come in the cat flap and eat it!
However I have noticed certain flavours that none of the cats like- perhaps the hedgehogs would appreciate it!

We had a "Harry" with us for nearly two weeks in August ,He/she found the way into our patio from the raised garden and took up abode with the tortoise in his house on the patio. He still had Hay in his house from his hibernation as we wanted to be sure he was still warm overnight cos its not been a good summer for him.
Harry came out every night so i put cat food out for him which he ate all of it and then made himself at home in Harold the Tortoise house.It was really sweet to see both of the snuggled up together. All attempts to "rescue" MR Harry met with him resisting and OH didn't want to stress hm BUT he was crapping!!! in Harold house and the smell was getting unbearable and I was worried it was unhygienic for our lad who is around fifty years old. We were going on Holiday for a week so OH waited till Harry was accessible and putting on some strong garden gloves he managed to pick him up and he took him out of the garden and the across the road to some orchards and put him down. We didnt want him to become road kill but wanted him to be far enough away not to get back to our garden whilst we were away/ After he had gone I had a horrible thought that HE may have been a SHE and her babies may have been waiting for MUM to come home.
I do hope He/She was able to find their bearings

thanks, I found instructions ages ago and asked o.h. if he would make one but he has been busy and knowing my luck, he would spend hours doing it and then they would ignore it lol

I will do something when I get back from my hols. with some strong cardboard boxes from a supermarket, I thought I'd use wine boxes and make them waterproof with tough polythene and interline them with newspaper, put them on bricks to keep them off the cold ground and make a ramp etc, similar to the wooden ones they show on the sites.


Joy, I stand for ages watching these ones feeding and have taken loads of photographs too
Lizx

I used to leave a bag of hay on it's side in the outside lavatory.Hedgehogs don't sleep in the same nest every day in the summer and my hay bag became a place to spend the day for one sometimes.

Used to put a lot out for them to eat at one time but it encourages rats so,in deference to the neighbours,I don't put very much out now.

Have been known to winter a few little babies in the past too.

i have a hedgehog living in my front garden
i to feed him/her and have hours of fun watching it
i also have a fox that comes at 1.45 most nights
my hubby thinks i am mad when i get up to watch it
but i love seeing it

Oh yes, the slugs head straight for the food so I figure two for one lol but having said that when I first started reading up on what they eat, hedgehogs not slugs, lol, it said that eating slugs and snails could give them lung disease and kill them. Hence me adding the cat food etc. I do give them cat biscuits and cat food with nuts and seeds, stale ones I never got round to eating, sprinkled over the top to try and deter the local moggies as I know they will scoff the lot if they can. I noticed this evening most of the top layer of cat meat had gone as well as the seed topping but whether cats or hedgehogs I don't know, I didn't see them. After the weekend I will ease off the supplies to discourage them before I go. I'd leave a note but can't do hedgehog writing! At least I feel I have helped build them up to start with especially the little one who is twice the size he was lol

Annina, I will come and cat sit if you like lol I miss being around cats.

Lizx

I put all the cat's leftovers outside the backdoor for hedgehogs and stray cats,and tramps if they want it! Slugs seem to swarm to it so I must be providing two courses for the price of one for the hedgehogs.

Hi Sparks, I wouldn't worry too much about your Hogs, as they have plenty of natural food available at this time of year. If you are really worried you could always leave them a large bowl of dried cat food, mine love it. Of course, you can't be sure that the local cats don't scoff it, but in my experience,they all live in harmony, slugs an all.

Mind you, I'm one to talk, Oh and I havn't had a holiday for years because we won't leave the cats.

n

I am still putting some food out for the hedgehogs but will put less and less out over the next week as I go away in 11 days time and by then they might have given up on me. I was going to ask the neighbour but he is going away the last week of our hols and another one is due to move soon so best I leave them to find new sources. The little one was here tonight and has grown a lot so I feel I have really helped him/her strengthen up ready for hibernation. I will feed them again when I get back and hope they keep coming back then till hibernation time, I also want to sort out some sort of shelter for them when I get back so they have a safe place to hibernate if they want.

I threw out some small cubes of stale cheese while it was snuffling at the food tray and it came very close to the house to get them all as some dropped as I threw them. It's the bravest of the lot, I suppose because it's used to me standing at the door photographing them from a young age. it was like a little hoover gobbling everything out there.

Lizx