Look What I Found in my Garden

[Python]

Doing some gardening tonight and I found this cheeky chappie - a young Hedgehog

They're great for eating slugs and other garden pests so I hope he decides to stay in our garden.

We gave him some catfood and some goats milk (kitten milk) so hope he'll keep coming back or take up permanent residence.

[Trekhawk]

Aahh that is so cute!!! I hope he/she hangs around to be your garden helper.

[nancielle]

He looks like he's really getting into his feast!

[abvnx]

aww, cute! thanks for posting it.

[mimitabby]

wow! I need one. We have slugs!

uh, Python, do people convince them to stay around or are they typically too independent?

[KnottedYet]

What a cutie!

[Trek420]

Awwww, s/he's so cute! And the photo, that's amazing. Macro lens? How'd you get so close?

[Lifesgreat]

Cuuuute!

[Python]

Mimitabby. If you feed them every evening they usually stay. We had a family of hedgehogs at our last house. They often used to come right up to the back door - Mum, Dad hedgehog and a couple of little ones. They can get quite tame. Now I know I've got hedgehogs I'll have to be very careful if I'm using the strimmer. I would be devastated if I caused injury or death to these lovely creatures.

Trek420. I got down flat on my belly with the zoom lens on full to take that pic. Hedgehog disappeared shortly after that but I bet he's back in almost the same place now. I shall avoid that part of the garden when I'm working in it so he has a bit of undergrowth to curl up in.

[mimitabby]

awesome!!!

i never knew! (and once upon a time, my Italian relatives were so hungry they used to EAT them!)

[Wahine]

He/she is sooooooooo cute I just wanna squeeze him.

Ummmmm. On the other hand, maybe not a good idea. He looks kinda prickly.

I love hedgehogs.

[smilingcat]

cute cute cute... Do you have someting like NWF backyard habitat certification (can't remember the exact name)? It's just a feather in your cap so to speak.

I desperately need one to deal with all the snails in my yard.

Thai chilli pepper plant --- gone, nada, see ya.
globe basil --- lasted a day then it was nubs, two days later no sign...
french string beans -- snails said thank you very much.
armanian cucumber --- what was that but still TASTY! they said.

Things that survivied, egg plant cause it was able to grow faster than snails could eat. Same with squash and zucchini.

Tomato plants -- we no like.

And I refuse to use any chemicals on my garden. Kitchen refuse gets composted, and we use carnivorous snails to deal with the regular snails, ladybugs for aphid control.

Smilingcat

[Aggie_Ama]

Now I know I've got hedgehogs I'll have to be very careful if I'm using the strimmer. I would be devastated if I caused injury or death to these lovely creatures.

WEe have quite a bit of toads that we enjoy because they keep the bugs under control. My neighbors keep trying to run off the free insect control! DH was devasted last night to have backed over one of our little visitors; he was so distraught as he watched it die. He also gets very alarmed that his workers kill snakes and bunnies at work.

[Python]

We get quite a lot of frogs and toads in our garden too. Our cat brought in a frog the other night. I thought it was dead as it was just lying on the floor with it's little hands over it's eyes. I picked it up and it jumped out of my hands. It landed on the floor and promptly covered it's eyes again! I managed to catch it again and put it outside in the garden. It covered it's eyes again. Poor thing must have thought it's end had come. It realised nothing was harming it and hopped off. Probably came from next door neighbour's pond. The same night a saw a large toad. I caught him and put him in a safer location in the garden. I like these animals because they do so much good in the garden. We also get Slow Worms. They're good at eating slugs and garden pests too.

[IFjane]

He also gets very alarmed that his workers kill snakes and bunnies at work.

I don't understand why people do this - and don't think a thing of it, especially snakes. There is a story on CNN.com about a 5 yo child who was killed by a stray bullet, fired by a policeman who was shooting a snake out of a tree! It's a tragedy that the child was killed - but why was he trying to shoot the snake out of the tree in the first place??? Seems simple to me - leave the snake alone and NO ONE GETS HURT.