When we first realised hedgehogs used our garden as part of their highway, and decided to put out food and water for them, the weather was still unpredictable.
It didn’t matter about their water, rain would only fill up the bowl. The food, on the other hand, needed to be kept dry as the dry pellets used for hedgehog food would go mushy and even the wet hedgehog food would end up inedible if it got too wet.
The first version was a large terracotta flower pot with a chunk missing on one side. The idea was that a hedgehog could get in easily but a cat might be wary about getting caught on the jagged piece.
The hedgehog feeding station can be seen at the bottom of the picture in the centre. Unfortunately the cats managed to get at the food by hooking out the dish with their paws.
This led to MkII with a rectangular terracotta planter with a broken side covering the food dish and a roof ridge tile which would allow a hedgehog to walk in but would be too low for a cat.
Unfortunately, as can be seen below, the cats could still manoeuvre the dish with their paws. Clearly something more was needed.
What was needed was something long and low which would allow something short and low (like a hedgehog) to enter and access the dining area to one side, but would not admit a wider, longer animal (such as a cat) to get far enough in and turn to get to the food.
This led us to MkIII with a brick tunnel, roofed in slate, with the dining area offset at the centre.
When Horace arrived early in the morning he mad a thorough inspection of the new construction and soon found his way in to the food.
The real test, of course, would be to see how a cat coped with the situation. Would it get in for some fine dining or would it have to crawl away, frustrated and hungry?
The cat that turned up was not the most cunning of its kind. In fact, when it comes down to it this cat is more on the stupid side.
Yes, it got its0 head in; yes, it even flattened itself down to get its shoulders in. Unfortunately for our dumb chum it could not get in far enough to reach the food and eventually gave up.
If it had only had the sense to realise that if it raised its head the tile would have been knocked off and the others would have followed suit.
This time it only needed some minor alterations and MkIV was catproof.
This version was left in place for a week or more with night time video surveillance and during that time not one of the four or five foolish felines who consider our garden to be a super highway managed to get at the food.
Eventually I created a grander version of the hedgehog feeding station in the area under an ornamental cherry tree by the compost bin and water butt.
This was built in the form of a house with two wings. Both entrance sections were high enough for a hedgehog and in each case there was a sharp right angle turning at the end leading into a slightly higher dining area with food and water under the upturned terracotta planter. All the areas had slate tiles with bricks to weigh them down.
Our little coterie of hedgehogs seem perfectly happy with MkV.
Robin's Nest 