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[jaypo]

It's really high,the fencing is bamboo like,could they climb that? Every night we see him,then he's gone in the morning,we're dumbfounded

[CLKD]

He/she may be living in your garden  ..........

[jaypo]

I can never find it anywhere,we've only one side of the garden with shrubs,heyho,hopefully he'll be back this year too

[CLKD]

They will climb and burrow ..........

[Taz2]

It's really high,the fencing is bamboo like,could they climb that? Every night we see him,then he's gone in the morning,we're dumbfounded

Could you cut a small hole in your fences to make a hedgehog highway as recommended by The Hedgehog Preservation Society? It only needs to be the size of a cd case and enables hedgies to roam through gardens as they need to do. We've just placed an order for new fencing and the company doing the work knew all about hedgehog highways which is heartening.

I hope he/she returns!

Taz x

[jaypo]

Thanks taz,thing is,we've a tiny dog,hence the reason for the escape proof fencing,wonder what else we could try

[Taz2]

I can see that would be a problem. I'm not sure you can do anything that won't put tiny dog at risk   

Taz x

[Taz2]

I hadn't heard that about the bacteria but there is belief that while they're gorging on mealworms which are supposed to have little nutritional value for the hog they are not eating their more natural diet. Cat and dog food is good but not fish flavours.

Taz x

[jaypo]

Thanks for all the info,maybe I'll go get a tin of cat food,hope he's ok,haven't seen him at all this year ☹️

[CLKD]

The two suggestions are not backed up by science.  1 floating around last year was based on a wild, young hedgehog which had 4 some reason been X-rayed.  I've seen copies of the films ......... and as it was a 1-off situation, there is nothing concrete to base those findings.  I know a Vet was involved .......... whose name escapes me this early.

Hedgehogs are scavengers of slugs and worms.  Plenty of bacteria in the ground that they walk over, in the food stuffs they eat which is probably why I don't add a couple of worms to my breakfast cereal!  Freeze dried meal worms cannot contain bacteria  and are processed for the pet trade so on that premise, my birds would be falling over dead: instead of hopping round my feet asking for live meal worms 

Wild animals on the whole avoid foods that will make them ill.  So I will continue to feed meal worms.  Cat food here gets gobbled up by cats, magpies, starlings, occasionally the blackbird ..........

Could you let me know the details of the research by ****les Hedgehog Rescue.  The 3 hedgehog centres and our Vets locally all feed
meal worms ..........

Anyway, off to look at last night's film ;-).

[Taz2]

It's not that the mealworms cause the metabolic bone disease it's the fact that the hedgehogs fill up on the easy tasty treats and then don't need to eat so much of their more natural diet. It's like giving a child the choice between vegetables or chocolate every day and then thinking it is the chocolate which has caused a vitamin deficiency rather than the lack of other foods.

Today's problem ..what I thought was a blackbird in the ivy was a rat. Four very excited cats now sit waiting..

Taz x

[CLKD]

According to the 1 report last year it was stated that meal worms stop uptake of calcium which then causes ricket-type problems ..... on the basis of 1 wild young hedgehog.

Yep, I know that meal worms are farmed, most of them in Yorkshire not far from Sheffield.  They also grow waxworks, various sizes of meal worm from the flour beetle, crickets ........ for the pet trade.  I wouldn't be feeding my lizards etc. if I thought that meal worms would cause problems 

How R the cats Taz?  One of ours sought out a nest of baby rats and delivered all 11 of them individually to my feet, this went on for about a week  - which is why we never had a cat flap.

[Taz2]

The cats are great. Three are asleep on the sofa but the fourth (three legs no tail) is still tracking the rat amongst the ivy on the fence

Taz X   

[CLKD]

Has the cat lost interest then Birdy 

[Taz2]

Ours bring in live mice but I try to get rid of them due to their constant urination wherever they go. Not good in the kitchen. In the garage was fine though. They nested in my mum's old sewing machine drawer.

Taz X