All you want to know about hedgehogs....

No more than dog/cat fleas. Just blooming annoying but may cause skin probs if you have an allergy to their bites, but nothing that wouldn't be easily cured

 

Hedgepigs need their fleas as far as I know, some sort of symbiosis.

 

Strange symbiosis, that! I wonder what benefit they give the hedgehog?

 

Belay that order, just googled it, it was something Radio 4 made up

Hedgepig fleas are very specific to them, they wont hang around on another animal.

There are some colonies that don't have fleas.

 

I thought it seemed a little strange

 

Mother used to say "Don't pick up a Hedgepig as it'll stick to your fist."

And one drunken night, she was proved right

 

We have ratties too as we live in a rural area. They do eat the hoggy food and the bird food, but I do put lots out so there is enough for everyone. Two of the rats have very enterprisingly found their way into my loft. They have declined to leave, nice and cosy for them up there no doubt, so I've just left them to it. I think I must be the only person in the Uk who likes rats

 

M + F ? .....

 

Two girls I think, mother and daughter possibly. My neighbour discovered that he had rats in his attic and he poisoned them all plus the rats who were living in his garden too There was a small colony living in my garden and they have disappeared as well. I have found 3 dead rats in my garden. Two of them were in one of the hog houses - I could smell something but couldn't work out where it was coming from - and then I found out. It was most unpleasant to deal with . I had a conversation with him about why its not a good idea to poison rats and he agreed with me, but he still did it anyway. We live in a rural area surrounded by fields and farms. There are always going to be rats.

 

I hope no-one thinks I am being rude here but its a very bad idea to give hogs bread. It doesn't contain any nutrition for them and it swells up inside them making them feel full when they are not. Milk also is very bad. It contain lactose and hogs are intolerant, even cat milk. Bread and milk together can cause sever stomach upsets and in an extreme case prove fatal.

Good quality kitten biscuits are best with a good quality cat or dog food, preferably the loaf kind. Jelly or gravy again can cause bad tummies. You can feed chopped chicken but processed meats are not good. Some people offer raw meat but I personally don't like the idea of that. I also give mine sunflower chips, bird seeds, rasins, chopped or halved peanuts and a bit of fruit now and again. Dried mealworms contain no nutrition although some hogs love them. They are best fed as a treat.

 

has anyone noticed much variation in colour? our resident hedgehog "Hodgy" is a light brown colour as are/were the few others ive seen and i assumed they were all roughly the same shade but recently Hodgy has brought his latest girlfriend to stay a few nights lol and she is a very dark brown colour....almost black! is this colour common does anyone know?

 

Not all hedgehogs have fleas, most of our hogs here do not have any. A few fleas do not harm the hog but they do not actually need the fleas as a symbiotic relationship. There is no benefit to the the hog. They are host specific and will not jump onto another mammal.If a hog has a lot of fleas it is sometimes an indication of the hog being unwell - for some reason fleas seem attracted to sick animals. One of two ticks will not really hurt a healthy hog either but a large burden of them can literally suck a hog dry. One of my autumn babies had 47 of them - took me ages to pick them all off him. Again, ticks seem to attracted to a sick animal, although they can be picked up anywhere the hog goes.

 

As far as I'm aware they can vary a bit in colour. I've noticed that the babies are sometimes lighter in colour and their spines darken as they grow.

 

My Spike has a creamy colour on the end of his quills so yes HoneyBunny lot of variation of colours , so thats how I know its him , been off on his travels again I only saw him once last week .
Spruce

 

very interesting to know there is such variation in colour! cream tipped spines you say @Spruce any chance of a pic ? i for one would love to see

i managed to get a pic of our Hodgies latest girlfriend this evening, shes very nervous and flighty, which just brings it home how incredibly trusting our Hodgy is our resident boy is the fine strapping brown chap, the other is his latest floozy (her name...erm....is Sonja ) i think the camera kinda made her look a tad lighter than she is, she does appear quite a bit darker in the flesh but then i suppose it is night? so... ..anyhoo pic below