Do hedgehogs live in the country ?

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I know that sounds ridiculous but I had regular visitors in London and I've been in the country for 6 yrs now And not seen a single one. I just wondered if urban living was easier pickings food wise .

Can anyone advise how to attract them into the garden.
 
Wish I knew how to attract them too. They were always in my mum's garden when I was a child, but I. 've never seen one in our hedgerows or near the stables.
 
Encourage slugs and snails, and whatever eats them will follow :) Offer to rehome a bucket full if you know anyone out to try and eradicate the ones in their garden or allotment. You will soon have the basis of a foodchain, and may get songbirds too. I find that our snailies are pretty handy, I move them onto anything I don't want growing!
 
Arizahn said:
Encourage slugs and snails, and whatever eats them will follow :)
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This. My mum usually leaves out cat food for an outside cat which comes visiting - always see lots of slugs etc. on the bowl afterwards and then often hedgehogs shortly after. They're then usually scared off by the badgers... its quite a wildlife zoo at mums!
 
If you're in an area with badgers then you have very little chance of seeing them unless you find their skins after the badgers have killed and eaten them.

Also for anyone having a bonfire, please do check them first for hedgehogs especially if the fire has been lying around for a few days as that's the sort of place they'd choose to hibernate in.
 
Thanks everyone. I don't have badgers but foxes, deer, birds of prey so not sure if they are preditors for hedgehogs. I'm not too keen on attracting snails/ slugs tbh as I have dogs and don't want that lungworms thing.
 
I've live in the country and have seen more Hedgehogs in the last couple of months than in the last 5 years. I commented to someone yesterday that they seem to be making a comeback :)
 
Ah thank you. I'm going to start collecting some leaves to make a den and put food out in an area the dogs can't get to.
 
Wish we had a hedgehog or four, we have an invasion of slugs in our house this year, yuck :(. Need to keep on top of them re lungworm with the dog :(
 
I have never had one that I know of in my garden until this year. Over the moon to find him (or her) nesting behind the chicken coop :). My friend who lives in a town has two large families in her garden so buys hog food from her local pet shop.
 
I live in the suburbs I guess you'd call it but not far from the countryside and sadly see more hedgehogs squished on the roads :( (badgers aren't their only 'predator'!). I do though seem to get a couple in my little garden - I am not 100% sure how they get on but I think they come in because I do seem to have a HUGE amount of slugs. I imagine they also pick at the remnants of guinea pig food when I've moved the run about. I did feed one some dog food one evening - I don't know if he/she ate it but it wasn't there later on!
 
Well I found one in my horses straw bank yesterday! Just started mucking out and heard a little noise that sounded like a sneeze. Saw a tiny whole and carefully removed straw on top to reveal a very sleepy hedgehog!
Felt very bad but had to remove otherwise it would of been squished by the donkey :/
I did create a big straw hiding place for the little chap so hope that will keep him/her warm for the winter.
 
You can let hedgehog hospitals and sanctuary's for help or even be a release site as long as you are not on a main road of course!

The hedgehog has enemies of foxes and badgers as stated! Tons of badgers I've seen killed this year but hedgehogs are in decline!

I used to run a small rescue and the vets would always send me their 'clients' to sort out and send off their merry way in a release site in the woods.

One hedgehog never left! He never wanted to! Even given the option! So he stayed and we did school visits with him and everything. He was big as fed on pedigree chum puppy food, eggs, worms, maggots, slugs etc. He had a sand pit, paddling pool and everything a well deserving hedgehog could want in our 3 acres walled garden. He was 10 when he passed away.

They are lovely shy animals, got rid of the unfriendly's straight away by using a normal standard flea powder and removed the ticks as well with the tick remover. Once treated never had to treat him again.
 
Here are a couple of pics of my pet Hedgie Scout, he is a Chocolate Pinto :)


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And here is my wild visitor who is alot more shy ;)

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Oh SLH those photos are adorable :) I so love hedgehogs. Just beautiful faces and have been lucly (and honuored) to have seen a few in wild. A gardeners little helper :)
 
We've had a few in our garden, but when working at the SSPCA I was told that if you see them out during the day then there's probably something wrong, so you're better off not seeing them! We found a tiny little one out during the day once, wandered about for a whole day on its own before we decided to take it to the vet and try feeding it. Was the smallest hedgehog he'd ever seen on it's own, poor thing, didn't make it. I always wondered what had happened to mum.
 
We used to see them sometimes. My OH was tired of fishing drowned ones out of the cattle grids, so built up some brick stairs so they could get out if they fell in.

There was a University report some years ago whch said that if the badger population reached XXX then it would start to affect the hedgehog population. The badger population reached XXX some time ago. It isn'tjust that badgers eat hedgehogs - they do - it is that they also compete for the same food. So if you are a little hedgehog hunting for worms and slugs and along comes a big badger you are going to have to get out of the way, and then the badger would have eaten what you were going to, so you have to go further to find food.

There are quite a few hedgehog groups around who can help with advice if you find one in trouble.
 
We've got one living under the pallets in our barn. I only know he's there as the farriers dog has found him a couple of times. We have three cats so i don't know if he helps himself to their food but there are also plenty of slugs and i think the hay that has fallen under the pallets makes for a nice bed.
 
I had one outside my front door step the other day! I had to shoo it back into the feild. but unfortunatly the most I see have had unfortunate accidents with cars :(
 
I live in the burbs (but have a horse in the country) and we used to see the occasional one, but haven't for about three years D:
 
In 20 years here we have only seen one. We do have a huge badger population and I am sure that is the reason. Never see them run over either anymore whereas there is usually a new badger casualty most weeks.
 
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