Hedgehogs
 

Reading jaysay's thread regarding fox's got me thinking of childhood evenings when mum and dad used to call us downstairs because there was a hedgehog in the garden We would give it some dog food then off it went on it's travels.

I know they are generally on the decline but how rare is it to see them now? I get to see quite a lot of different wildlife where we live but I haven't seen a hedgehog in years!

Chav, I want to know about live ones please, not ones your car tyres have encountered. ;)

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We have an hedgehog at work. We used to have a family of them but have only seen the one this year.

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I had them in my back garden on a regular basis until they built two new estates on two sides of where I live. They where a god send and super slug control bods. I haven’t seen one in my garden for about three years now and they are sadly missed.

When we had the pen up at Fern Gore we took them for granted and you could find them without much effort. I remember picking one up and finding it covered in little red mites, yuk.

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Obviously not taken any notice of the road safety ad have they:rolleyes:

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They wouldn't know he was allowed on the road? :eek: They are very trusting animals and would take it for granted that we didn’t allow idiots on the road. :D

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PMSL!!!! good point lol tho their downfall as theres always one driving about:D

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:eek: I don't believe you said that! :eek:

I think you should start a one-woman-hedgehog-crossing patrol for that !! ;)

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I would if i could find any to patrol!!!!:p:D

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we see odd ones round here...

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Haven't seen one for a couple of years tinks. Perhaps it's the weather, or perhaps I just haven't been out in the garden in an evening so much.
Did you know hedgehogs can climb fences?

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I think it's a few things, yes the weather and as Doug mentioned new housing developments, it's made all the hedgehogs go to Grannyclarets Cleveleys retreat for a holiday!

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I don't see them that often, but they make a hell of a sound when the Mummy and Daddy ones are playing at horses.

Although they are cute they are usually lousey with fleas and mites.

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Well seen as you've got a shortage of snails ;) I'll trade you 10,000 snails for 1 hedgehog :D

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Saw one last night Tinks, a big fat one, I often see them at night they seem to playout more when the rest of us are tucked up in bed

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LOL Like slugs do in fact no shortage of them buggers they especially like a drink of beer:D

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I wonder if we can encourage some hedgehogs out if we offer them beer like we did those slugs? Might be worth a go the next nice evening we get. ;)

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Mmmmm sounds good & wonder if they wait on doorstep night after night like the slugs did lol:D

Conserved by beer:D

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As most of you are well aware, Accy and the surrounding area has been plagued by a number of infestations of "travellers" over the last few years. What is their favourites bed time snack?

None other than roast hedgehog! Most people will notice when their house has been broken into, but will probably not miss Henry the Hedgehog at the bottom of the garden.So if you do want to see more of these splendid little creatures, then just ensure that HBC & the local cops keep the gypos well out of town.

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Did you know that hedgehogs eat slugs, you've got more chance of getting them to visit if you've got slugs than beer. Also hedgehogs like creosote, the get excited by the smell. On a fence I mean, don't go giving them saucers of the stuff.

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:eek: OMG! Mr T! I thought you were joking with that but mtheads just told me that they actually do! Apparently they wrap them in clay and cook them on a bonfire, is that correct?

Dirty, evil gits!!! :mad:

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yes, Tinks it is true......when they pull the clay off all the skin and spikes come off too leaving the roasted meat underneath....don't know if they eat the innards.....YUK!

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I think roast hedgehog is a Romany delicacy - not your average "traveller" who tends to feast on cheeseburgers and chips.

I haven't seen a live hedgehog for years (plenty of road-kill ones) and I really wish they'd come into my garden because I'm always fighting a battle with slugs and snails. I have half a dozen different varieties of hostas, in a corner, and they are Slug Heaven. If I could only entice a hedgehog to come and live with me it could have the best of everything - I'd even provide it with its own kennel - and it would never go hungry.

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I was once given a whole load of lupins for my garden....they were full of slugs...I used to go out when it got dark and catch the blighters and pour salt on them.....I was fighting a losing battle and in the end I got rid of the lupins and put flags down....no digging, no weeding.....but not much colour.

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A recipe for Tinkerbelle and mthead:

Clay-baked wild birds or hedgehogs

This isn't one to try at home (you could well fall foul of wildlife protection laws, apart from anything else), but the easiest way to cook wild birds (or hedgehogs for that matter) is not to pluck them but to smear wet clay onto the feathers. The birds are then cooked on an open fire and the feathers and skin come away when they are cooked. The same thing happens with the spines of hedgehogs, which were traditionally clay-baked by the Romany people. The meat is said to taste like pork – hence the hedgehog's name.

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:eek: You are a very bad man Mr Yerself .......... :spank:

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If you want to try the odd ducky bird Tinks you should singe off the feathers “if plucking isn’t you bag” and then wrap it in dock leaves quite tightly and then put a layer of clay all way round. Don’t for get to gut the bird first are it might go bang at some point.

For your oven, dig a decent pit in the back garden and fill it with all the bits of tree you have left over from your neighbour’s revenge sortie and place an assortment of manageable stones on top of the wood and then produce a flame and set fire to it.

Allow the wood to burn away and let the stones fall into the pit, clear away some of the ash and place you balls of clay on the stones cover them with a few branches left over from your tree and then back fill your pit with ash and earth. Leave to cook for around half an hour per pound. When cooked remove the earth and carefully extract your balls and split the clay apart. Pull back the leaves, which you can eat and then enjoy you meal.

Yes it’s hard work, but lets face it you’re not short of a few logs and you will be hard pushed ever to eat such a tasty fresh cooked meal. :)

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In between 2 Nori's with Yerselfs if you don't stop it ;)

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Who's Nora? :confused:

Is this what they call a threesome? :D :D :D


Are you feeling a bit wooden :D :D Whoops, did I mention your trees again Tinks...;) :)

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you'r cruel,I hope tinks gets you with her nori's.

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when i was 10 years old me and a girl found a hedgehog in a field and we adopted it as our own and left it slugs which we found under large stones etc to eat

it was only after 7 days that we realised that it wasnt actualy moving from where we left it and i turned it over to discover it had been half eaten away by maggots

also later in my mid 20's i found 2 baby hedgehogs outside my flat in church been tormented by cats , the cats got a brick each thrown at them and i put the baby hedgehogs safely i a nearby bush

in my late 20's i went out to burnley and spent my taxi fare on booze and to kill time on the walk home i played football with a round object which i later found to be a hedgehog after kicking it around for about 10 mins , i like to think my previous 2 acts of kindness cancell out this honest mistake :D

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Doug = Bispham's very own Ray Mears.:)

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Was Ray Mears that horrible swine of a govener in Prisoner Cell Block H???:eek:

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He He He!! :D

He's one of these outdoor bush tucker guys Granny ;)

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Nay. Ray Mears is a survival specialist who appears on t'telly. He teaches how to survive for 6 months in the wilderness with nothing more than a penknife and a piece of string. You come out fatter than when you went in.

Did I ever tell you about my survival course, involving two slices of Hovis and a live frog? If you could eat that, you didn't need the course...

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Oh,sorry i never heard of him.. but the guy i am thinking of was in neighbours too,,,oooh he gave me the creeps in prisoner

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Granny do you mean this guy?

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oh god no... he was much more sinister...he had a lot of freckles.and i am almost sure he was called ray mears or megre or something...

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Ahhh now I know Ray Meagher ...... Alf Stewart ....... Home & Away ;) :D

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I understood that the 'nursery book' recommendation to attract hedgehogs was pobs in milk (lancashire glossary: pieces of bread in water, for those who wouldn't know). Problem is could attract the rats, which might be destined for another thread at some stage. :eek:

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Are you talking about your neighbours again?

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They now say you shouldn't give hedgehogs milk, Kate, it's bad for them! (Oh heck, all those years of cruelty to hedgehogs in West End when I was a child.) Apparently the stuff to give them is dog food. :)

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:eek: Your just trying to get my trees cut down again, aren't you!!

It also depends what side you mean ;) we have something resembling cattle living on the other side ....... and don't mention next door but one!! :D

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OI!!:D You cant complain anymore cos your trees block out the light my bush is nicely neatly trimmed i get at least an hr more daylight than i did before LOL!!!!

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Once had a tame hedgehog, which lived mostly indoors. It used to wriggle into the back of our old TV and sleep there, so whenever you wanted to watch TV, you had to check that the hedgehog wasn't hugging the valves (yes, that old!).

They are largely nocturnal, so you'll have to hang around with a torch.

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It's a myth that hedge hogs carry apples on their backs, the only way would be if a napple fell on it's spines.

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Never even heard the 'myth' of hedgehogs carrying apples before! :confused:

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A lot of people haven't, I think it's dying out TBH. People probably realise it is just that. They did an expiriment on one of the nature programs a while ago to try to get it to pick an apple up on its spines but no, hedgy gogs have no interest in doing so, they probably think we're mental creatures. erm can't find a pic of a hedgehog with an apple on it's back, only a pear.

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http://hedgehogcentral.com/myths.shtml

There you are, you had me thinking if I'd got mixed up then, and I found the perfect site , it's actually on a myths site about hedgehogs. lol.

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Having a fag out the bedroom window at about 3am this morning, listening to the drunken idiots round the corner taking their post-football anger out on each other ('twas a good fight, well worth getting up to watch :boxing_sm) and what do I see toddling across the road? A big fat roly poly hedgehog :D

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Roly Poly >>> had it bin licking up the left-overs then ?:D

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lol! It didn't have time to lick up left overs it was running really fast to avoid the flying bottles and fists Kate :)

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Ya' a daft bat Tinkers ... :D :D

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fighting is bad. Mr hedgehog knows this and went to hide in a safe place.

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saw a poor little dead one at the side of the road on my way to preston this morning or should I say sunday morning, aww poor thing looked like it had been eaten from the inside out too!!! :(

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yes anyway, how big was your bush before mel, it sounds like it was huge.

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Mels bush is that big it's legendary in these parts :D

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bet its got hedgehogs

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Who's told you about my big bush:eek:

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Erm it was the biggest bush it was legendary altho its had a ruddy good trim by your other neighbour whom couldnt wait to get his trimmer on me bush:rolleyes::D

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:eek: You mean YOUR other neighbour! I've been no-were near your bush! :D

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Dont lie we just couldnt see you pass cos it was sooo huge:D

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OMG! :rofl38: I thought it had gone whooosh then ;) but I've just noticed you've changed it :D

Saying I trimmed your bush is going to start worrying mthead, especially after we told him what you were going to do to me at the park!! :rofl38:

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Me rarely miss a thing:D

I dont think Mt head is that bothered he didnt say i couldn't he just grinned:D:D

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LOL i bet he did.

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Slightly back on thread if anyone has any tips to get rid of slugs on a permanent basis i would love to hear 'em;I really can't be doing with them.My mum has toads that wander in and out of her garden as well as hedgehogs;maybe I should "toadnap" one.:confused:

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You can get environmentally friendly slug pellets, but the rain washes them away. The normal ones kill the hedgegogs.

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Came across this story by accident whilst I was searching for something else, thought right up Chav's street, sick or what ?? :D :-

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswi...lsweeties.html

Hope I got that long thread name correct.

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WELL! After starting this thread I currently have a lodger :confused: Little one has got a hedgehog, she said she found it wandering :rolleyes: I've taken it off her because am I right in thinking that, not only could it be riddled with all sorts, it should actually be sleeping now? I take it the best think to do is keep it in this box in a quiet place so it can sleep then release it tonight?

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I was just looking for this thread after your little one showed me earlier:eek: least i can say ive seen one up close - poor thing:D

They are riddled with Ticks & fleas [could also have disease or infection risk], plus they are nocturnal [??] this one wanted somewhere dark to sleep, plus its a wild animal & could effect its life as they are not pets, it could be a mummy/daddy with young ones nearby to feed (its too big to be a baby one] they need to find their own food [maybe best it did too hehehehe]

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lol! Yeah I know all that Mel, I'll clarify what I meant to be asking. Is it better to release it tonight rather than take it to the field now in broad daylight or does it not matter?

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Is it going to be safe from disturbance today? if so best release it in the dark when its quiet plus where its not at risk of becoming a squished one:eek:

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Oh yes that can most certainly be arranged ;)

I think it's best to let it go tonight, before Tealeaf wants it to make a butty or chav so he can play football with it :D

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PMSL!!!!!!! now which ones the worst punishment :rolleyes: :D

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Lodger is on his way to the RSPCA :D That's my good deed for the day ....

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Lol best way:D Just hope theres no more doing a why did the hedgehog crossing the road....:D

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I presume that is were you were going when you pipped at me in the street just now and made me jump?:eek:


Stuff the hedgehog (recipe in the Traveller's Cook Book page 37,) what about cruelty to Rindys?:D

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Heheheheheheehe she wasn't taking you to the RSPR {Royal Society of Protection of Rindys] was she? :p hehehehe:D

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:eek: Rindy Roo if you had been wandering dazed and confused in the middle of the road like Mr Hedgehog I would have made every effect to avoid hitting you with the car too.



THAT IS ;) until I'd realised it was you .... then I would slam it in reverse and make sure I was 2nd time lucky!! :D