Coming in from the Cold

The visitor enjoys my cookies.

We have been seeing our little visitor regularly...after the first time I saw him, I did a bit of research and discovered that hedgehogs should be hibernating at this time of year so if there are any about now, in November, they could be in trouble.

It's likely that our little visitor is an autumn juvenile; born at the end of the summer and not had enough time to build up the fat reserves that trigger hibernation. 

There is some really good information on the British Hedgehog Preservation Society website regarding what you can do to help these autumn juveniles survive the winter. In the UK hedgehogs are an endangered species due to the way people have changed the environment so I think it's quite important to try and help!

Our hedgehog comes along every night and eats the food we put out for him and seems lively and healthy and he certainly has a very healthy appetite. I was concerned about how he would cope in the plummeting temperatures so following the advice from the website, I brought him in (wearing a pair of garden gloves for protection) and weighed him to see if he was of a critical weight. This little creature weighs 530g...so he should really be OK to hibernate? But for whatever reason, he's not. 

We kept him indoors for two nights because the temperatures had dropped to sub-zero. We gave him cat food, water and a fleece blanket to snuggle into. Although he gladly ate the food and gulped down the water, he was not happy at all to be trapped in the box and spent all night trying to scratch his way out. For an animal that can walk many miles every night it's not surprising that he was not content in a box. I felt he was getting seriously distressed by being in captivity so last night after much worrying and procrastinating, we released him into the garden again. The snow is beginning to melt and it's not as bitterly cold as it was... I hope he will be alright.

I will be putting food and water in the little hedgehog feeding station every night and if I see him again I will try to capture him and weigh him. If he has lost weight I will take him to a rescue centre. I didn't really want to take him to a rescue centre because he was obviously getting quite traumatised being in captivity and also because the nearest centre is a good drive away and he would be taken away from our garden -  his little home.

I am still very worried about him - have I made the right decision?