Questionplease advise. we have a hedgehog which lives in our garden.All is fine apart from every night he comes through our catflap and poos in our dining room. We cannot lock the flap because of the cat. We just wondered if there was anything we could put down at the entrance to deter him (e.g lemon juice or something) Its great he,s around and the cat and dog take no notice of him, its just the poo thing. Thanks for reading this, please help. Nigel
AnswerI don't really have any experience with Euro Hedgies, so all I can do is try to come up with suggestions based on my experience with the African hedgehogs. You might be able to deter him with some sort of pepper, but I would be concerned about either him or your cat getting it in their eyes or nose, so I would be hesitant to use that. What I would try would be some sort of a physical obstacle, either something difficult to climb over (but that the cat can leap) or something like the slightly sharp pads they sell to put in potted plants so the cats don't dig in them. You would need to be careful as I know you don't want to hurt him, but it can be VERY hard to deter a determined hedgehog!! If you think your cat would tolerate it you might try locking the door just for a night or two to get him out of the habit, or getting one of the doors that only opens for an animal wearing a "key" of sorts on its collar. Hopefully this gives you some ideas to help solve your problem, I'm sorry I don't have an actual "solution" for you!
