Luckily she left me lots of signs, disturbed trails in the grass, knocked over sticks I had placed by the doorway to her house, and of course a bowl of food licked clean. And finally poop!
It was due to finding mystery poop in my garden that I first realised I had a hedgehog visitor so it's a good thing to look out for if you're trying to attract hedgehogs and don't have a camera trap.
Luckily it's pretty easy to identify too.
It's smaller than cat poop and generally quite black. Also it can look sparkly (like the poop on the left in the photo below) due to all the insect casings it contains. It can also look shiny and slimy if the hedgehog has been eating a lot of worms. (right hand poop)
If you're unsure the best way to confirm if you have hedgehog poop is to swirl it in some water.
You might need to poke it with a stick to break it up. (Don't worry it doesn't smell bad) This separates out the insect casings, if you find them, then you definitely have hedgehog poop.
Look for shiny bits like in this close up photo. They're pretty small so you might need a magnifying glass to see them.
Like an owl pellet, you can find out what your hedgehog has been eating by dissecting the poop.
My dissection revealed that Pog has been eating earwigs, I found earwig pincers:
Beetles, I found wing casings:
And worms, I found worm skins:
Happy poop hunting! :D
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