# Hedgehog spotted in day time!



## angelserz

Not as pretty as the hedgehogs I spotted last summer (remember those cute blond hedgehogs? There's a forum post with pics posted in the wildlife section somewhere if you want to search) but still SO cute! Here's the hedgehog last night:











Today the hedgehog is back... and looking for food, I spotted him eating a chip that the kids had dropped outside:










_(Sorry it's a phone pic, not the best quality. My camera had no battery power)_ 

Just wanted to share the cuteness. :flrt:


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## Zoo-Man

Hedgehogs shouldn't be out in the daytime. It is usually an indication that something is wrong. I'd PM Shell195 about it, as she does a lot of rescue & rehabilitation of Hedgehogs each year.


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## angelserz

Zoo-Man said:


> Hedgehogs shouldn't be out in the daytime. It is usually an indication that something is wrong. I'd PM Shell195 about it, as she does a lot of rescue & rehabilitation of Hedgehogs each year.


Yeah, I read that. He looked ok and he was eating (not sure if hedgehogs should eat chips though lol) and I put a bowl of water out in the garden for him. I'm keeping a look out to see if he comes back.


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## FeralWild

Theres a lot of worry regarding hedgehogs being out in the daytime, but a lot of nocturnal animals will become diurnal and take a wander out in the daytime if theres food about. Hedgehogs feed on insects and especially love slugs and snails but will take anything else going if they come across it, (hence the issues on that british island a few years ago where they were eating seabird eggs).

Bear in mind if the hedgehog is out on a lawn during hot summer weather and not really doing anything in particular then there may be something wrong, but bear in mind that when we have rain in summer, the clouds will cover the sky and give an impression of twilight. They often come out hunting for the slugs and snails in late afternoon following a heavy rainstorm and in west yorkshire where my parents live, there are several hedgehogs that wander up the hedgerow alongside their garden during the day hunting for peanuts which have fallen out of the birdfeeders or off the table. We even found one under the gazebo the other week, eating oilives that had been knocked off the table onto the lawn.


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## Shell195

FeralWild said:


> Theres a lot of worry regarding hedgehogs being out in the daytime, but a lot of nocturnal animals will become diurnal and take a wander out in the daytime if theres food about. Hedgehogs feed on insects and especially love slugs and snails but will take anything else going if they come across it, (hence the issues on that british island a few years ago where they were eating seabird eggs).
> 
> Bear in mind if the hedgehog is out on a lawn during hot summer weather and not really doing anything in particular then there may be something wrong, but bear in mind that when we have rain in summer, the clouds will cover the sky and give an impression of twilight. They often come out hunting for the slugs and snails in late afternoon following a heavy rainstorm and in west yorkshire where my parents live, there are several hedgehogs that wander up the hedgerow alongside their garden during the day hunting for peanuts which have fallen out of the birdfeeders or off the table. We even found one under the gazebo the other week, eating oilives that had been knocked off the table onto the lawn.


 
That is not normal behaviour :bash:


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## FeralWild

No its not but animals adapt to changes in their environment and in modern times, some species are adapting themselves and changing their normal behaviour as part of the adapting process. I'm not saying that if you see one out in daytime then it is all fine and dandy but I am saying that if you do then don't automatically assume that it is ill or dying.

When you build a bonfire in autumn, hedgehogs often use them to hibernate in and so we are all told to move the pile from one pile to another before lighting to give any hogs the chance to escape. What do we do then? Watch the hogs wander off across the garden. We don't see them outside in the daytime then and panic do we?


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## Shell195

FeralWild said:


> No its not but animals adapt to changes in their environment and in modern times, some species are adapting themselves and changing their normal behaviour as part of the adapting process. I'm not saying that if you see one out in daytime then it is all fine and dandy but I am saying that if you do then don't automatically assume that it is ill or dying.
> 
> When you build a bonfire in autumn, hedgehogs often use them to hibernate in and so we are all told to move the pile from one pile to another before lighting to give any hogs the chance to escape. What do we do then? Watch the hogs wander off across the garden. We don't see them outside in the daytime then and panic do we?


 
This must be why people ring our sanctuary after watching the hog for x amount of days and we have little chance of saving them:bash:


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## angeldog

i cant believe that people post replies to stuff when they clearly have no idea what their talking about


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## Shell195

FeralWild said:


> Theres a lot of worry regarding hedgehogs being out in the daytime, but a lot of nocturnal animals will become diurnal and take a wander out in the daytime if theres food about. Hedgehogs feed on insects and especially love slugs and snails but will take anything else going if they come across it, (hence the issues on that british island a few years ago where they were eating seabird eggs).
> 
> Bear in mind if the hedgehog is out on a lawn during hot summer weather and not really doing anything in particular then there may be something wrong, but bear in mind that when we have rain in summer, the clouds will cover the sky and give an impression of twilight. They often come out hunting for the slugs and snails in late afternoon following a heavy rainstorm and in west yorkshire where my parents live, there are several hedgehogs that wander up the hedgerow alongside their garden during the day hunting for peanuts which have fallen out of the birdfeeders or off the table. We even found one under the gazebo the other week, eating oilives that had been knocked off the table onto the lawn.





FeralWild said:


> No its not but animals adapt to changes in their environment and in modern times, some species are adapting themselves and changing their normal behaviour as part of the adapting process. I'm not saying that if you see one out in daytime then it is all fine and dandy but I am saying that if you do then don't automatically assume that it is ill or dying.
> 
> When you build a bonfire in autumn, hedgehogs often use them to hibernate in and so we are all told to move the pile from one pile to another before lighting to give any hogs the chance to escape. What do we do then? Watch the hogs wander off across the garden. We don't see them outside in the daytime then and panic do we?


 
It clearly shows you have little experiance with hedgehogs as slugs and snails make up a very small amount of their diet. Slugs and snails can cause lungworm which is a great killer. They are now an endangered species and many of the ones out in the day are starving as humans have created such tidy and pest free gardens there is no natural food for them.

I wont comment on your second post!


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## FeralWild

There will always be differences in opinions to what consititutes advice on different animals and you are all welcome to your opinions about them. However it is not fair for you to assume how much experience I have regarding hedgehogs. I have a hedgehog in my own garden which potters round on an evening and gathers up bits and pieces. I specifically do not make my garden too neat and tidy as there is a lot of life in it, and leave bits of overgrown areas and even have a small ramp in my pond incase the little chap falls in while drinking from it.

The hedgehogs that live at my parents have always wandered about during early evening. I may have made the timings a little unexplained but when I said that they wander about during the day it is 5, 6 7ish in the evening not lunchtime. However although the hedgehogs gather up bits of uneaten food in the garden we don't actually feed them as they seem to find enough food otherwise. I am aware of the lungworm problem arising at present due to it being carried by slugs and snails and know the effects it can have on hedgehogs along with other animals such as dogs and cats.

The point I made previously about them being about in daytime is a little unorthodox I admit. But all I am saying is that people have a tendency to over exaggerate the conditions or circumstances when an animal is in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not suggesting you should leave it where it is if you see one out during the day. Far from it. But to keep an eye on it and see what it is up to and make doubly sure it is in need of rescue. I would never suggest that someone leaves it out in the sun for hours or days on end. It could all be determined by the time of day it is out and about. Though I know that the one in my garden will wander about as early as five pm following a rainstorm in summer.

I was only offering my opinion on the subject, I don't deny that a hedgehog sanctuary would know more on the subject than I would.


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