Weird and weirder

[probes]

Ok, I step out of our house and who do I see? A hedgehog is walking towards the shed. I have a bundle of a net (or whatever you call it, the plastic-made thing one uses to protect the cherries) in the corner there - I admit I should have stored it properly - and snuggles its way into it. I didn't want to disturb it, could get scared or entangled or something, and when I checked later, it was asleep - or at least that's what it looked, as much as one can guess by the looks of a hedgehog.
So, what's that? - urbanization of wildlife or what? Preferring man-made materials?

P.S and yes, of course I feel honoured to have such a co-habitant. Except that it shat before getting into its... den? Must be with a loo.

[OFSO]

They make great companions, but watch out for fleas !

[stuart]

I agree about the fleas ofso, we left the patio doors open by mistake one night and our spaniel bought up a hedgehog in the middle of the night and placed it on the bed,my wife put her hand on it and said whats this hairbrush ? anyway it was covered in fleas so we wrapped it in a towel and put it back in the shrubbery, Stu.

[Opsboi]

Whatever you do, don't leave milk out for it - it can do it a lot of damage

[angels]

Hedgehogs used to be very common where I was brought up in suburban Surrey. On my way to my paper round in the morning I would occasionally find them bumbling along with yoghurt pots on their heads.

Sadly the usual mix of population growth, pesticides and habitation destruction have meant I've not seen one since I returned from Asia in 1999.

I also know how to cook them, but have never done so.

[henry crun]

I was woken once by monstrously loud breathing noises outside. Didn't look till morning and found a hedgehog. Noisy brutes! Nice, though.

[Ex-Ascot]

Back in the UK we used to have a wildlife area in our garden where we put old logs and hay down to encourage the hedgehogs. It was a very successful programme. Our late dog was crazy about them. Used to run in circles around them in the middle of the lawn.

[probes]

Jeezz! Fleas! And, Angels!!
(what's there to cook, anyway?)

Besides, it's gone right now. Was sleeping half an hour ago (I assume, breathing nice and evenly) - not any more. Actually the neighbour said there has been one around in the gardens for about more than two decades (longer than me, probably not the same one) and a couple of years ago there were little hedgehog-cubs (or what are they?). The dachs learned very fast that she has to be very quiet when she finds one, or there'll be no fun. So did we - dachs quiet and doing something - time to rescue the babies.
But there's plenty of (raspberry) bush and dogwood, so it really beats me - why the plastic den??

P.S yes, I've read about milk being bad for them.
P.P.S but there was a toad hopping around.
P.P.P.S I've also left some of the garden (not a very big one, actually) for the dachs to carry on her business (like digging, youknow) and to remind me of 'medium rare' wildlife.

[500N]

I also know how to cook them, but have never done so.

From memory, you can wrap them in Mud and cook on hot coals, then when you break the mud the spikes come off as one.

[handsfree]

Not seen one in our garden for years now.
One particular big, fat one used to take great delight in climbing into the dog's food bowl and noshing his food.
When finished all that was left was a very shiny bowl and perfectly meat free biscuits.

[angels]

500N - You got it!

I seem to recall as well that you had to dig a smallish hole, fill it up with glowing embers and pop the hedgepig in overnight to produce the effect you describe.

[ian16th]

We had a pair get into our lean to porch, over the back door of our house in Hereford.

We were woken up by their sexual athletics when they tried mating!

[CharlieOneSix]

Early one winter's evening we found one wandering around the garden in the snow - I thought they hibernated for winter? It was obviously poorly and SWMBO insisted I drive it to the nearest hedgehog sanctuary. That was a 104 mile round trip in the snow to Dundee and back, all for a hedgehog.

[Hydromet]

From memory, you can wrap them in Mud and cook on hot coals, then when you break the mud the spikes come off as one.
Same as echidna, then?

[OFSO]

Memories of my long-gone mum and dad, who would in summer have afternoon tea in their garden in East Sussex - a cup and saucer placed on the grass would soon be rocking as "Hedgie" would scuttle up and try to overturn the teacup and drink the contents. And yes, milk in the tea too. Nobody had told him (or her) it was bad for hedgehogs.

[angels]

How do hedgehogs mate?

Very carefully.

[Keef]

We have a regular who wanders round our garden at sunset. Bread and milk are NOT given. She and Daisy the tortoise have had a standoff over who eats Daisy's lunch, but the hedgehog seems to prefer slugs and worms, which Daisy considers beneath her (well, they are!).

I once watched a film about porcupines. The concept of defence involved reversing fast at whatever threatened.

[probes]

OK, it's back and, my word of honour!, it was snoring!
Then I saw it scratching its ear a couple of meters away form its den, it indicated noticing me (the hedgehog-sound, you know), went back fast and pooped again. Must have been some tactics - successful also, as our ever-alert dachs has not dicścovered it.
Should I call it Snoggy (=snoring hedgehoggy)?


P.S oh no, I shouldn't have checked the Urban dictionary...


P.P.S - anything else that's weird or weirder you've noticed - not necessarily hedgehogs or wildlife?

[Tom Joad]

Sun flowers are pretty weird, the way they just stand there all 12 foot of them and seem to say "sod off I'm a sun flower". 3 of the blighters are peering down at me from over the neighbours garden. Pretty though, in a weird way.

[421dog]

I was struck by the amount of non-substantiated "evidence" that I came across on the web when I tried to look up the purported lactose intolerance of hedgehogs.

I blew about an hour, without finding a lot of substance.

I found a lot of sites quoting each other and variably claiming a blanket allergy, or, more commonly, an enzymatic deficiency, which was mostly backed up by some lawsuit about a commercial for lactose free food of some sort.

I found one reference in the Merck Veterinary Manual that indicated milk was not a good hedgehog staple food, but it was not substantiated.

Conversely, there were a few hedgehog rescue organization references saying it was a recommended food.

I didn't find any peer reviewed sources about milk and hedgehogs one way on the other.

It struck me sort of like the way that Heyerdahl's theories about whence Easter Island was populated are treated in the popular literature, or the general interdict against putting blue food coloring in tube feeds to monitor for aspiration.

A lot of "it's bad because we say it is"

I suspect some of the posters here have been subject to the same cognitive dissonance and can set me on the right path.