In this week’s ManxSPCA column, General Manager Juana Warburton talks hedgehog care during the winter...

We usually discuss hedgehog welfare in the spring, when these amazing creatures are coming out of hibernation, and prior to bonfire night, when it’s important to check for sleeping hedgehogs in wood piles before a fire is lit.

But we have had several calls over the last couple of weeks about hedgehogs in gardens, out and about in daylight hours. Every scenario is different, but our advice is generally based on whether the hog appears sick or not, and its size. A sick or injured hog needs veterinary attention, and should be taken to see a vet straight away (this will be free of charge), and a hog weighing under 550g will not have enough reserves of body fat to survive the winter and so should be brought to the ManxSPCA for overwintering, especially if it is very small, unless this is something the garden owner is prepared to do.

Overwintering an underweight hedgehog requires a daily commitment – if the hog is returning to its own ‘nest’ in a sheltered part of the garden, that’s fine; otherwise you will need to make them a bed of leaves, ideally in the corner of an open shed or outbuilding. The hog will need to be fed every evening (non-meaty dog and cat food is best) and have a constant supply of fresh water in a shallow bowl.

The hog will probably be more active in milder weather, and once it is a sufficient weight it will start to hibernate. During hibernation the hog is not really asleep – it is in a state of torpor which means that its body temperature drops to match its surroundings. This allows it to save energy and slows down its bodily functions. It’s important not to disturb a hog once it has started hibernation, and so take care if you’re clearing away leaves or tidying a compost heap, but sometimes hogs do wake up and move about.

If you think a hog is awake during the winter, but you don’t want to leave out wet dog or cat food on the off chance, why not try placing a hand full of kitten biscuits in a dish and cover it with a saucer? This should prevent mice eating the food but the hog should be able to move the saucer out of the way.

Hedgehogs generally don’t have an easy life, and last month the Western European hedgehog was reclassified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ‘red list’ (a global inventory of the conservation status and extinction risk of different species) from ‘least concern’ to ‘near threatened’.

And research in Denmark has shown that most hedgehogs don’t live anything like their natural lifespan of six years or more. Researchers dissected the bodies of 700 dead hogs (roadkill, etc.) and counted the growth rings on the hogs’ jaw bones. The average age of the hogs was just two years old although, somewhat surprisingly, a male hog that had been killed by a dog was established as having been 16 years old.

The vast majority of hedgehogs will be safely hibernating by now, but there are still measures you can take to ensure their wellbeing at this time of year. If you are protecting delicate plants from frost with mesh, or you have covered your garden pond with netting, please ensure that it is completely secure so that a hog cannot become entangled in it.

And if you are repairing garden fencing after it’s been blown down by strong winds, why not use the opportunity to create a 13cm wide hole, or several holes, at the bottom to create a hedgehog ‘highway’. This will help hogs, when they wake up, to range freely (they can travel more than two kilometres a night) in pursuit of both food and ‘friendship’ – hedgehogs are quite promiscuous and a litter of hoglets born in the spring may have several different fathers!