# My first experience of badgers



## Dazla (Dec 16, 2009)

*well i was on my was to Clee Hills in shropshire about 3 months ago when i saw my first ever badger, unfortunatly it was dead by the side of the road, i collect animal skulls so realy wanted to collect it but i was in my cousins car....... then while at work in wolverhampton we found a badger set with about 15 to 20 enterance holes, while having a mooch and taking fotos i came across a badger carcass that was very decomposed (the skull is in a tub of water now in my back garden). then a few weeks ago i sneeked over to the set very slowly, i heard the bushes russelling so i jump up and saw 1 very breifly running away, im working there again this week so im taking some unsalted raw peanuts to scatter about, my dad has lots of blackberries in the summer in his garden so i will feed them those soon, is there anything else i can feed them like dog biscuits ect??? Dont worry im not going to feed them all the time as ive read they will be dependant on the food i give them and stop eating other stuff, i only go to the badger set every fortnight anyway......*


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## Danbellini (Sep 29, 2008)

Very _interesting_ lol
Collecting skulls? that must be fun, until people see them lined up in your bedroom/house haha
Ive seen a badger before but it scarpered as soon as it saw me
bit off topic, but, what animal skulls do you have? Ive found numerous sheep skulls and even a couple of what i thought to be rat but a friend told me they were something else


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## Dazla (Dec 16, 2009)

i used to work in a pet shop so everything that died i used to take home and put them in a tub of mealworms, my favourites was a ferrit, turtle, and a jacksons chameleon, i had many others but also had an ex-girlfriend from hell and she threw them all away..... at the moment ive got 3 sheep skulls with horns, 2 sets of 3 tear antlers, budgie skull, buzzard, squirrel, tiny mouse, rabbit and the new badger 1, oh and a stuffed tiger rump tarantula lol


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## angelserz (Apr 15, 2010)

Dazla said:


> *well i was on my was to Clee Hills in shropshire about 3 months ago when i saw my first ever badger, unfortunatly it was dead by the side of the road, i collect animal skulls so realy wanted to collect it but i was in my cousins car....... then while at work in wolverhampton we found a badger set with about 15 to 20 enterance holes, while having a mooch and taking fotos i came across a badger carcass that was very decomposed (the skull is in a tub of water now in my back garden). then a few weeks ago i sneeked over to the set very slowly, i heard the bushes russelling so i jump up and saw 1 very breifly running away, im working there again this week so im taking some unsalted raw peanuts to scatter about, my dad has lots of blackberries in the summer in his garden so i will feed them those soon, is there anything else i can feed them like dog biscuits ect??? Dont worry im not going to feed them all the time as ive read they will be dependant on the food i give them and stop eating other stuff, i only go to the badger set every fortnight anyway......*


Pics pics pics!! Take a camera incase you see any more running around  lol.


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## pirez (May 3, 2009)

You should only give them food they would naturally come across in the wild, nuts and berries would be great! 
This way they wont get dependant on man made processed foods!

Pics please!lol


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Honey! They love honey!


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## Natrix (Dec 9, 2006)

feorag said:


> Honey! They love honey!


Thats true, they dig up the bumble bee nests in my garden and make a real mess.

We had one clipped by a car last year. I had to put a dust bin over it to stop it wondering into the road. I spent nearly an hour sitting on the dust bin with the badger growling and shaking it, waiting for the local wild life rescue bloke to turn up. It's not something I would recomend doing again.

Natrix


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## Woodsman (Aug 12, 2008)

Natrix said:


> Thats true, they dig up the bumble bee nests in my garden and make a real mess.
> 
> We had one clipped by a car last year. I had to put a dust bin over it to stop it wondering into the road. I spent nearly an hour sitting on the dust bin with the badger growling and shaking it, waiting for the local wild life rescue bloke to turn up. It's not something I would recomend doing again.
> 
> Natrix


Badgers dig up wasp/bee nests to get at the larvae not for honey (no honey in bumble bee or wasp nests) no doubt they also love honey if they can get it.


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## Natrix (Dec 9, 2006)

Woodsman said:


> Badgers dig up wasp/bee nests to get at the larvae not for honey (no honey in bumble bee or wasp nests) no doubt they also love honey if they can get it.


Interesting! I knew wasps didn't make honey but hadn't realised bumble bees didn't.
What do they feed their larvae with? 
Is it just fresh pollen and nectar? 

Natrix


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## eddygecko (Feb 14, 2007)

So let me get this straight. You want to lay a trap to catch a badger, chop of its head take it home then let mealworms eat is flesh and put it on display?

OMG IM CALLING THE RSPCA


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## Dazla (Dec 16, 2009)

NOOOOOOOOOOOO i would never hurt a Badger! i love all animals but yes i do collect skulls as orniments, ive been to the Badger set today, i scatters 6 hand fulls of raw unsalted peanuts about, 6 handfulls might sound alot but theres about 25 holes that they use so im guessing theres alot in the family.

Its only the first time ive fed them and i only go there every 2 weeks so they wont get dependant on me i promise..... but id just like to give them a better variety of foods to make them more happy because the woods they live in is very small and surrounded by public, ive taken some pics of the entrance holes, ill put them on this post soon.

I dont drive and the set is abit far from me or else i would sit there for a night to take pics and watch them come out their burrows.

P.S i would never harm any animal


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## Woodsman (Aug 12, 2008)

Natrix said:


> Interesting! I knew wasps didn't make honey but hadn't realised bumble bees didn't.
> What do they feed their larvae with?
> Is it just fresh pollen and nectar?
> 
> Natrix


Yes,larvae are fed pollen and nectar.
The nests are often in old mouse holes or sometimes in the base of tall grass tussocks and is essentially a ball of grass and moss with wax cells inside it.


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## Dazla (Dec 16, 2009)

im not sure but ive been told that the badgers rip all the grass up for the worms an Daddy Longleg lavae, theyve made a right mess of the grass where i work


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## feorag (Jul 31, 2007)

Have you seen the length of claws a badger has?? They're excellent for digging up worms which are their staple diet. They eat about 160 worms a night!

I don't see a problem feeding them every now and again, especially when there is not as much natural food around for them, such as winter when there's a hard frost or summer. Or summer when it's really dry and the worms go deeper underground, so when there's been no rain for a few days, the badgers have to dig deeper to reach them.

All wildlife could do with a hand now and again imao.

You could put down tinned or dried dog food, the cereal type is better than nuggets, but make sure there is a supply of water somewhere near for them if you want.

Don't forget they're omniverous and so will eat fruit and berries too.

Our badgers enjoy an occasional peanut butter sandwich (pine martens adore them too! :2thumb) and as a very special treat they _looove_ a jam doughnut, but only very occasionally obviously because of the sugar.

If there isn't a water supply around you could always put down a bowl of water when there hasn't been any rain for a long time.


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