Autumn Juvenile's.
Autumn juvenile hedgehogs are ones that are old enough to be away from their mothers but too small to hibernate. The autumn juvenile season can start as early as September and is busy through until the end of November. However, some will struggle on and the occasional one can be found from December through until April. The ones found in March and April may have struggled through the winter or they may have hibernated but at the minimum weight for hibernation so they are weak when they emerge. Young hedgehogs can and will hibernate at 450gms or less but are more likely to survive hibernation at 600gms and will be in better condition post hibernation. Giving advice on whether to leave them out in the garden and keep feeding them or whether to bring them indoors and over-winter them can be difficult. Left outside it is more difficult to monitor them and if they start to have problems and hide away they can just die. If they are brought indoors the stress of captivity can also kill them. So the advice for a hedgehog will greatly depend on area and circumstances. My personnel thoughts, is buy a camera and keep watch and keep feeding. If in doubt, just give a rescue a call.
HEDGEHOGS THAT CAN PROBABLY BE LEFT IN THE WILD
If the hedgehog is a regular visitor to your garden, is only seen at night, appears active and you are prepared to feed it (have feeding station) every night then it can be left in the wild. However if the hedgehog goes off its food, wobbles and staggers or starts coming out in the day or you notice it has green slimy poo especially if there is blood in it, then it needs extra help as soon as possible. Even if you must bring a hedgehog in do keep putting food outside as there may be siblings or other autumn juveniles making the most of your hospitality. If the food does not go you could continue to provide dry cat biscuits – these will not go off as quickly as tinned food so are less wasteful. Make sure there is water available, especially if feeding dry foods. Any under 250gms in autumn are likely to be genuine orphans and should be rescued immediately.
This year we have taken no hedgehog in over 500grams, unless its had a problem. However, saying that - all the hedgehogs in our care at the moment seem to be over run with parasites.
HEDGEHOGS THAT CAN PROBABLY BE LEFT IN THE WILD
If the hedgehog is a regular visitor to your garden, is only seen at night, appears active and you are prepared to feed it (have feeding station) every night then it can be left in the wild. However if the hedgehog goes off its food, wobbles and staggers or starts coming out in the day or you notice it has green slimy poo especially if there is blood in it, then it needs extra help as soon as possible. Even if you must bring a hedgehog in do keep putting food outside as there may be siblings or other autumn juveniles making the most of your hospitality. If the food does not go you could continue to provide dry cat biscuits – these will not go off as quickly as tinned food so are less wasteful. Make sure there is water available, especially if feeding dry foods. Any under 250gms in autumn are likely to be genuine orphans and should be rescued immediately.
This year we have taken no hedgehog in over 500grams, unless its had a problem. However, saying that - all the hedgehogs in our care at the moment seem to be over run with parasites.
Winter weather
OVER-WINTERING
Over-wintering a hedgehog is never undertaken lightly. They need to be weighed daily, to see if they are eating or just walking through the food. Personally, I would suggest the best thing to do is to keep that food station full, supply lots of water and buy a camera or two, so you can see what's going on. As a rehabilitator, we will check their weight twice a day, to check they are not losing any. We also do regular testing, using a microscope to check for parasites. Only a when a hedgehog is over 600 grams, and parasite free, will we consider gradually re-introducing the hog to the cooler temperatures. Then, we put them into rabbit hutches and let them make up their own minds if they wish to hibernate or not, whilst continuing to feed. If we manage to get up to the magic 800 grams and the weather is mild, then we would hope to release back to the finders garden - proving they of course, have a hedgehog feeding station etc. If that is not an option, then the hedgehog would continue to stay with us until the spring. Then either released to their original site or re-homed to a nest site. Males on the other hand, can become agitated and try to escape from the hutches, if this happens it is always best to release them at the earliest opportunity. Hedgehogs can die from stress.
Over-wintering a hedgehog is never undertaken lightly. They need to be weighed daily, to see if they are eating or just walking through the food. Personally, I would suggest the best thing to do is to keep that food station full, supply lots of water and buy a camera or two, so you can see what's going on. As a rehabilitator, we will check their weight twice a day, to check they are not losing any. We also do regular testing, using a microscope to check for parasites. Only a when a hedgehog is over 600 grams, and parasite free, will we consider gradually re-introducing the hog to the cooler temperatures. Then, we put them into rabbit hutches and let them make up their own minds if they wish to hibernate or not, whilst continuing to feed. If we manage to get up to the magic 800 grams and the weather is mild, then we would hope to release back to the finders garden - proving they of course, have a hedgehog feeding station etc. If that is not an option, then the hedgehog would continue to stay with us until the spring. Then either released to their original site or re-homed to a nest site. Males on the other hand, can become agitated and try to escape from the hutches, if this happens it is always best to release them at the earliest opportunity. Hedgehogs can die from stress.