Post by Psamathe on May 21, 2020 11:10:55 GMT
Last night my main intent was to verify the hedgehog(s) were eating their food (from the feeding station).
And I recorded some behaviour that I found surprising and don't understand. On a gravel area the hedgehog seemed determined to lick one stone (but a few others picked up in his/her mouth). The area was not baited beyond the hedgehog feeding station a few feet away (and no food or debris from that. Water dish a few feet away.
Gravel area is occasionally walked on but beyond that nothing except (maybe) worryingly a month ago it was glycophosphated and nt much rain since then.
(Might take a bit of time to load as it's HD @60 fps and hosted on my site NOT a dedicated video hosting site as they tend to over-compress and mess up quality ...)
Any ideas as to why? I wondered about mineral needs but I'd guess they should be fine from their normal diet (and plenty of insects and beetles around and the moment)
Somebody had been eating in but only a bit each night. In previous years a daily task was to clean out the poo left by the previous night's visitors. But this year it's all clean and I was a bit concerned that I might just be encouraging local rats.
Full "blog" post (which does not really say anything beyond above) psamathe.net/hedgehog-stone-licking/
Ian
And I recorded some behaviour that I found surprising and don't understand. On a gravel area the hedgehog seemed determined to lick one stone (but a few others picked up in his/her mouth). The area was not baited beyond the hedgehog feeding station a few feet away (and no food or debris from that. Water dish a few feet away.
Gravel area is occasionally walked on but beyond that nothing except (maybe) worryingly a month ago it was glycophosphated and nt much rain since then.
(Might take a bit of time to load as it's HD @60 fps and hosted on my site NOT a dedicated video hosting site as they tend to over-compress and mess up quality ...)
Any ideas as to why? I wondered about mineral needs but I'd guess they should be fine from their normal diet (and plenty of insects and beetles around and the moment)
Somebody had been eating in but only a bit each night. In previous years a daily task was to clean out the poo left by the previous night's visitors. But this year it's all clean and I was a bit concerned that I might just be encouraging local rats.
Full "blog" post (which does not really say anything beyond above) psamathe.net/hedgehog-stone-licking/
Ian
