Spike the Hedgehog

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MAY 1999

When you live in the middle of London any sign of nature is always welcome, though it's surprisingly easy to see urban wildlife if you know where to look for it. In May '99 we came home late at night to find next-door's cats playing rather gingerly with a rolled-up ball of bristles on our front doorstep. When we shooed the cats away it turned out to be a small hedgehog (left) which Dave duly released into the back garden. It disappeared with a rattle of spines in the direction of the compost heap and we assumed we'd never see it again.
But when the weather turned warmer and we began to leave the back door open after dusk, we heard some strange noises coming from our flowerbeds. Hedgehogs are noisy creatures, and when they're not pushing their way through bushes or tipping over empty flowerpots they sniff and snuffle as loudly as humans.
Dave sat outside one evening on the lawn to see what went on after dark. After a few minutes a hedgehog appeared in the undergrowth and ventured onto the lawn...
...then it ran down the garden path from the compost heap and disappeared into the flowers. A few minutes later another one followed ... and another.
We both sat outside after that and watched 17 hedgehogs run down the path, all in the same direction, and all disappearing into the flowers. Eventually the penny dropped and we worked out that our one hedgehog was doing laps around the garden fence, returning through the garden next door. He (it?) carried on doing them throughout most of the night.
After checking the Internet for advice on feeding hedgehogs we began to put out small saucers of dog food and a plate of water at 11 pm. Spike (well, what else do you call a hedgehog?) was unsure at first and hid in the flowerbeds sniffing very loudly indeed. We'd made sure that we placed the saucer on his "laps circuit" so that he wouldn't have to go out of his way to find it.

SPIKE'S LIKES AND DISLIKES

Spike turned out to be very fussy - either clambering into the bowl to lick it clean or taking one sniff and scampering off back to the compost heap. Here are his preferences:

SPIKE'S LIKES SPIKE DISLIKES
Cesar dog food in a tin (Salmon and Tuna)
Cesar dog food in a tray (Rabbit and Heart)
Tesco dog food in a tin (Rabbit)
Winalot dog food in a tin (Cod and Plaice) Pedigree Chum dog food in a tin
Winalot dog food in a tin (other flavours)
Cesar dog food in a tin (Beef)
Cesar dog food in a tray (Turkey and Lamb)
Flash photography
Sudden movement
Cats

We treated this scientifically, of course, sometimes putting two kinds of dog food in a saucer. Spike has been known to climb over food he doesn't like to eat the brand he prefers.

SPIKE'S LIKES	SPIKE DISLIKES
Cesar dog food in a tin (Salmon and Tuna) Cesar dog food in a tray (Rabbit and Heart) Tesco dog food in a tin (Rabbit) Winalot dog food in a tin (Cod and Plaice)	Pedigree Chum dog food in a tin Winalot dog food in a tin (other flavours) Cesar dog food in a tin (Beef) Cesar dog food in a tray (Turkey and Lamb) Flash photography Sudden movement Cats

AUGUST 1999

We went to Stuttgart in August '99 to see the eclipse and Spike only appeared once, shortly after we returned. We guessed he was annoyed with us for not feeding him that week and had gone off to find slugs elsewhere. We didn't see him again all winter.

APRIL 2000

Then on 10th April 2000 he returned, doing laps around the back garden fence again. He wolfed down half a tin of 'Cesar' Salmon and Tuna dog food, so he was obviously hungry. He's still scared of flash photography but we've managed to take a couple of pictures. He's been back every night since.
Tonight (17th April 2000), as he was feeding Spike, Dave saw ANOTHER hedgehog shuffle past as well. Unfortunately he didn't have the camera handy at the time. Will there be more details of Spike and Prickilla (Queen of the hedgehogs?). . . Well no, unfortunately it seems to have been a one-off - see below.

JULY 2000

Over the last couple of months Spike has grown a lot more confident. One night we opened the back door to find him looking up at us from under the door sill. After that we started feeding him by the back door. (Still no sign of the elusive second hedgehog though. Dave promises he did see it, but no-one else has.)

Next Spike began running out to meet us whenever we went out onto the patio after dark. He didn't wait for us to finish spooning dogfood onto the plate before he started eating. Now we've reached the point where he eats from the spoon.
We are careful not to give him more than a spoonful or so of dogfood and dog biscuits a night, as hedgehogs tend to overeat. If they get too fat they can't roll up into a ball and become vulnerable to predators. We also don't want him to become too tame for the same reason. We've let the back part of our garden go wild in case that's where he sleeps during the day. Hopefully one day Spike will run out to be fed followed by baby hedgehogs - or is that asking too much?

SEPTEMBER 2000

Spike's visits became less frequent in August and we haven't seen or heard from him for a few weeks now. Here's hoping we see him in April 2001.

MARCH 2001

We've seen Spike again! He's actually made a mess inside our shed, where we keep our washing machine and also a bag of bird seed away from the squirrels. John put a load of laundry in the machine at 7.30pm on 28th March and when he went to collect the clothes two hours later noticed a lot of bird seed on the shed floor. Closer inspection revealed a large amount of hedgehog poo amongst the scattered seed, and a prickly shape sleeping soundly inside the bag.

Spike slept soundly for a day and a half, but in the end we had to coax him out of the shed with his favourite dog food. He'd chosen a very inconvenient place for that final month's snooze. He's now extremely hungry and if we go out at night Spike is never far behind, ever hopeful. We're quite keen to find Spike a mate, so if anyone has hints on how to discover the sex of a hedgehog, please let us know.

MAY 2001

We last saw Spike in May 2001. We'll let you know if he returns.

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	When you live in the middle of London any sign of nature is always welcome, though it's surprisingly easy to see urban wildlife if you know where to look for it. In May '99 we came home late at night to find next-door's cats playing rather gingerly with a rolled-up ball of bristles on our front doorstep. When we shooed the cats away it turned out to be a small hedgehog (left) which Dave duly released into the back garden. It disappeared with a rattle of spines in the direction of the compost heap and we assumed we'd never see it again.
But when the weather turned warmer and we began to leave the back door open after dusk, we heard some strange noises coming from our flowerbeds. Hedgehogs are noisy creatures, and when they're not pushing their way through bushes or tipping over empty flowerpots they sniff and snuffle as loudly as humans.
Dave sat outside one evening on the lawn to see what went on after dark. After a few minutes a hedgehog appeared in the undergrowth and ventured onto the lawn...
...then it ran down the garden path from the compost heap and disappeared into the flowers. A few minutes later another one followed ... and another.
	We both sat outside after that and watched 17 hedgehogs run down the path, all in the same direction, and all disappearing into the flowers. Eventually the penny dropped and we worked out that our one hedgehog was doing laps around the garden fence, returning through the garden next door. He (it?) carried on doing them throughout most of the night.
After checking the Internet for advice on feeding hedgehogs we began to put out small saucers of dog food and a plate of water at 11 pm. Spike (well, what else do you call a hedgehog?) was unsure at first and hid in the flowerbeds sniffing very loudly indeed. We'd made sure that we placed the saucer on his "laps circuit" so that he wouldn't have to go out of his way to find it.