Some creatures, like rats and shrews, only sleep for short periods and can be active both day and night, though they often prefer one to the other. The hedgehog, on the other hand, is truly nocturnal and evolved to sleep through the day and come out at night.
Hedgehogs will most probably not be awake until the sun has set and the daylight is out, most of the time during the evenings. It is quite common for most hedgehogs to be sleeping between 18 to 20 hours a day.
Routinely we expect to see hedgehogs come out in the evening around 9.30pm and go back to bed by 5am. Hedgehog living in the garden where there is food will often come out when the food arrives as they hear the clink of a bowl or the munching of another hedgehogs with their acute hearing and come out immediately.
Hedgehogs are solitary creatures that are big sleepers and can sleep up to 18 hours per day, according to Animal Planet. They are also nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day. This can make them poor pet choices for someone that wants and active pet during daytime hours. At night, hedgehogs search for food.
It reports that hedgehogs are among the loudest nocturnal animals, competing with cicadas, frogs and the caridean snapping shrimp.
Due to their spines, hedgehogs aren't very cuddly animals. However, they are very friendly and playful pets.
Hedgehogs easily dig, climb, swim, and run. Although they have sensitive olfaction and hearing, their eyesight is poor. While foraging, hedgehogs make a variety of snuffling noises; when agitated, they make a loud hissing sound interrupted by cough-like and puffing sounds. Hedgehogs in intense distress may scream.
Night manoeuvres
Like bats, hedgehogs avoid artificial lighting, keeping to less well-lit areas, and this could affect other behaviours.
Dr. Keller says, “With appropriate care and keeping, your hedgehog will live about five years, and some even live longer than eight years.” If you have any questions about hedgehogs, contact your local veterinarian.
Hedgehogs have relatively poor eyesight, instead relying on their sense of smell and hearing to navigate and search for prey in the dark.
Hedgehogs are nocturnal, meaning they sleep during the day and are active at night. They also make sure to hide themselves away in their nest when they're resting, to avoid disturbance and predation. For these reasons, sleeping and resting aren't behaviours we're likely to see a lot in the garden!
The hedgehog won't be roused by touch or by noise. Hibernation is a state of torpor, where the core body temperature has dropped, the heart rate and breathing have slowed right down and normal activity has stopped. A hibernating hedgehog will be completely rolled up into a tight ball with no face visible.
Hedgehogs usually hibernate from October/November through to March/April. Research has shown that each individual is likely to move nesting sites at least once during this period and so can sometimes be seen out and about. During mild winters hedgehogs can remain active well into November and December.
Hedgehogs are known to be very communicative when it comes to their needs, and often make a low purring sound when they are happy or content.
Depression. Without room, a hedgehog will show signs of depression, such as excessive sleeping, refusal to eat, repetitious behaviour, and self mutilation.
Signs of stress
Many hedgehogs are busy and want to try to explore but a stressed hedgehog will be much more persistent and not easily distracted. The stressed hedgehog may also twitch or shake its head nervously. It is almost as if the hedgehog is saying “Sensory overload. I can't take it anymore.”
However, the species is prohibited throughout Australia for a number of reasons including its potential to introduce exotic animal diseases and because the species has the ability to become a serious invasive pest in Australia.
Threats: The biggest threat to hedgehogs is probably habitat loss, with the change from pastoral farming to arable crops, over the last 30 years. The use of chemicals in gardens and for intensive farming kills the creatures hedgehogs need for food and may also poison them directly. Many are also killed on roads.
Handling Tips
If you find an injured hedgehog, wearing thick gardening gloves, pick it up by holding it in both hands round the middle, scooping it up. Put it into a cardboard box lined with newspaper and give a small towel or tea towel for it to hide under.
Leave out foods like tinned dog or cat food and crushed cat or dog biscuits. Supply good quality, meaty hedgehog food from wildlife food suppliers. Never feed hedgehogs milk or bread - milk can cause diarrhoea and bread isn't very nutritious.
They self-anoint when stimulated
If a hedgehog smells or tastes something really strong, it will attempt to cover itself in foamy saliva, much like a cat cleaning itself. This is called self-anointing.
A hedgehog has the strange habit of 'self anointing'; when it comes across a strong smell or taste it twists its head round and, using the tongue, covers its spines and fur in a frothy saliva - looking as thought it is covered in soap bubbles! This behaviour is quite normal but no-one knows its purpose.