Bay 12 Games Forum

Finally... => General Discussion => Topic started by: hedgerow on July 05, 2021, 07:50:01 am

Title: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: hedgerow on July 05, 2021, 07:50:01 am
So, the most adorable critters on Planet Earth are the hedgehogs, or hedgehog (singular), one of seventeen species prevalent throughout the developed and developing world, across five genera.  Though not native to North America, many Americans enjoy their spiny friends, who can form lifelong (about six years) companions for any lost soul.  Hedgehogs were known in antiquity, such as in Ancient Egypt, in Africa, where the more adorable African Pygmy Hedgehog is native, the most favorable species in terms of domestic ownership.

Competitive by nature, hedgehogs are not tolerant of their own sex, though females are capable of getting along.  They are known to be pathogenic due to the higher levels of biologically-available bacteria in their mouths, and so large cities, such as New York City, have outlawed them, so as to prevent the spread of infection.  Hedgehogs are a gentle creature, and they are known to have saliva on their backs, though why this is the case is still unknown.

Hedgehog spines are a natural defense, and they are known predators to snakes in the wild.  Why nature made these adorable snake-killing machines in beyond mortal comprehension, but a hedgehog can easily kill a snake in mortal combat should it want to.  What's more, they also play the piano.

(https://putanumonit.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/hedgehog17_large.jpg?w=900)

The hedgehog was mentioned several times in the Christian Bible, which I occasionally reference.  Without being too heavy-handed and disrespectful to my fellow forumers, I'd like to share my favorite, since its poignancy and relevance affects me even now:

"But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness." Isaiah 34:11
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Bumber on July 05, 2021, 09:23:28 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvNEZ4WWQIk
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: delphonso on July 05, 2021, 11:30:27 pm
If I wanted to have a hedgehog as a pet - what sort of food do I give them beyond handfuls of snakes? Also can I give that food to hedgies if I find them in the wild?

I hear they really like golden rings.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Frumple on July 05, 2021, 11:58:11 pm
Google suggests they taste delicious, can anyone confirm?
I hear they really like golden rings chili dogs.
Fixed that for you; get your deep hedgehog lore straight, del :P
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: ChairmanPoo on July 06, 2021, 02:24:02 am
Nice thread you've going there... It'd be a shame if someone dropped in and rule34d all over it...

(Frumple: do your thing!)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: King Zultan on July 06, 2021, 03:02:06 am
For some reason I feel an urge to kick one to see how far I can kick it.

Also sonic is worst hedgehog.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: delphonso on July 06, 2021, 03:04:56 am
For some reason I feel an urge to kick one to see how far I can kick it.

Also sonic is worst hedgehog.

Join me in the echidna appreciation thread.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: wierd on July 06, 2021, 03:05:35 am
I will just settle for a nice game of croquet.

(http://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/d1/e1/37d1e1f1eadd0274193bd97002b9c0e5.png)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: King Zultan on July 06, 2021, 03:51:23 am
For some reason I feel an urge to kick one to see how far I can kick it.

Also sonic is worst hedgehog.

Join me in the echidna appreciation thread.
I don't know, they seem kind of evil, I mean they almost killed smallhands with their ability to roll into an unkillable ball.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: hedgerow on July 06, 2021, 05:25:25 am
If I wanted to have a hedgehog as a pet - what sort of food do I give them beyond handfuls of snakes? Also can I give that food to hedgies if I find them in the wild?

I hear they really like golden rings.

Candied grasshoppers.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: delphonso on July 06, 2021, 08:02:22 am
I don't know, they seem kind of evil, I mean they almost killed smallhands with their ability to roll into an unkillable ball.

They sure are tough (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FXglHbYB1Y4).

Candied grasshoppers.
Christ now I need to feed candy to grasshoppers too?
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: brewer bob on July 06, 2021, 08:41:27 am
There's been a family of hedgehogs living close to my house for as long as I've been around (so, probably several generations of hedgehogs?). They seem to have a certain route and schedule each evening, so it's quite easy to predict when to go outside to see them milling about and rustling in the grass. Adorable little buggers.

Unfortunately, there's less and less wildlife to be seen here every year ever since building new apartments began some 5 years ago and much of the small forests were chopped down in the name of progress.  :'(
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: MrRoboto75 on July 06, 2021, 10:50:42 am
whoa chilly dogs
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: martinuzz on July 06, 2021, 11:39:59 am
I have had a hedgehog return to my garden every year. It would sit under the rose bush and make crunching noises as it was cracking snail shells to get to their soft juicy insides.


Two times, I caught it in the act of entering my house through the cat hatch, and steal catfood right from under my flabberghasted cats' noses.

I haven't seen it anymore since last year :(. I want a new friendly neigborhood hedghog, them snails are a plague now.

EDIT: Oh , someone asked what they eat. First of all, they are not pets. They don't like captivity.
But if you do want to feed a wild hedgehog, (dry) catfood isn't bad for them.

NEVER give them milk though. Cats just get stomach aches and diarrhoea from milk, but hedgehogs will die from it.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: MrRoboto75 on July 06, 2021, 12:24:46 pm
EDIT: Oh , someone asked what they eat.

Hedges, right?
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: dragdeler on July 06, 2021, 12:26:59 pm
They're not eating them, only stockpiling.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: brewer bob on July 06, 2021, 12:37:00 pm
NEVER give them milk though. Cats just get stomach aches and diarrhoea from milk, but hedgehogs will die from it.

We have a habit of putting out a bowl of water during hot & dry periods. It's not much, but at least something to keep local wildlife hydrated.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Yellow Pixel on July 06, 2021, 12:48:00 pm
There are no wild hedgehogs where I live... :(

But there are chipmunks though! :)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: dragdeler on July 06, 2021, 01:02:53 pm
START YOUR OWN APPRECIATION THREAD (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNnVbEru-l0)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Loud Whispers on July 06, 2021, 01:30:40 pm
whoa chilly dogs
it's chilli dogs time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtZahgPh5tQ)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: King Zultan on July 07, 2021, 03:17:31 am
But what do they taste like?
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: hedgerow on July 07, 2021, 04:43:35 am
But what do they taste like?

 :)
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: George_Chickens on July 07, 2021, 07:48:48 am
Don't hedgehogs chew their own poo and spit it on each other?
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: voliol on July 07, 2021, 07:56:12 am
Hedgehogs are cute. They also gave me one of my favorite animes, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: ChairmanPoo on July 07, 2021, 10:59:51 am
But what do they taste like?
Like beer and failure.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: martinuzz on July 07, 2021, 07:02:14 pm
But what do they taste like?
Like beer and failure.
Sounds good, I'll have two of those please
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: EuchreJack on July 07, 2021, 07:50:42 pm
But what do they taste like?
Like beer and failure.
So Hedgehogs should remind me of a bar?
Now, I'm really appreciating Hedgehogs!
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: King Zultan on July 08, 2021, 02:30:48 am
That makes me wonder as to how we could brew them into alcohol.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: martinuzz on July 08, 2021, 05:09:02 am
Use pears, make prickly pear wine
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Frumple on July 08, 2021, 05:09:37 am
Obvious methods would be do them like those snakes they put in booze some times, or drop some quills in whatever you're fermenting. Less obvious would get... weirder.

Something that might actually work (and make something psychoactive/hallucinogenic) is to replicate that old (as in pre-industrial age) druggy trick of getting something jumped up on shrooms and then collecting their pee for reuse, either including it in the direct brewing process somewhere or cutting the finished product with psychedelic hedgehog piss.

The exact logistics of that process are left as an exercise for the curious.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: brewer bob on July 08, 2021, 06:13:27 am
There's also Cock Ale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_ale), so maybe something similar could be done with a hedgehog?:

Quote
"Take ten gallons of ale, and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him); then put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put it to three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or nine days time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give the same time to ripen as other ale."
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: hedgerow on July 08, 2021, 06:25:49 am
There's also Cock Ale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_ale), so maybe something similar could be done with a hedgehog?:

Quote
"Take ten gallons of ale, and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him); then put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put it to three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or nine days time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give the same time to ripen as other ale."

Just the idea of mace being in anything I consume is enough to turn me off from the prospective liquor.

Hedgehogs are dirtier than chickens anyway.

You could cook them.  I do hear they eat hedgehogs in poorer parts of the world.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: delphonso on July 08, 2021, 07:59:24 am
Is this where the word cocktail comes from?

I'd imagine hedgehog consumption is probably rare due to them seeming to have no meat and also covered in spikes and their own shit.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: martinuzz on July 08, 2021, 08:36:25 am
Their prickly defense comes with a downside. Hedgehogs can't groom themselves properly, so they're always covered in lice, fleas and other parasites.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: brewer bob on July 08, 2021, 09:16:59 am
Is this where the word cocktail comes from?

At least Wikipedia states that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail#Etymology) "Several authors have theorized that cocktail may be a corruption of cock ale" along other possibilities.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: hedgerow on July 08, 2021, 10:21:17 am
Is this where the word cocktail comes from?

At least Wikipedia states that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail#Etymology) "Several authors have theorized that cocktail may be a corruption of cock ale" along other possibilities.

My teacher used to tell me it was because they put a cock feather in the glass.  The world may never know.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: King Zultan on July 09, 2021, 02:31:26 am
Maybe it's because they put a severed cock in a glass?
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: Bralbaard on July 09, 2021, 04:22:31 am
There's also Cock Ale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_ale), so maybe something similar could be done with a hedgehog?:

Quote
"Take ten gallons of ale, and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him); then put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put it to three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or nine days time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give the same time to ripen as other ale."

I had to read that twice to find out that you add whatever remains of the cock to already mostly fermented ale, instead of fermenting the meat itself from the start which sounded like a terribly dangerous pasttime. Still, you'd have to be certain that there is already sufficient alcohol in the pre-fermented ale to keep any dangerous bacteria from gaining a foothold during the rest of the fermentation process.
In any case, fermenting hedgehogs sounds like a waste of a completely fine animal.
We have a resident hedgehog in our garden, and it is a great asset that keeps snail and slug populations down.
Title: Re: The Hedgehog Appreciation Thread
Post by: brewer bob on July 31, 2021, 07:53:42 am
We have a resident hedgehog in our garden, and it is a great asset that keeps snail and slug populations down.

Just a couple days ago I saw our local hedgehog going about its business. Hadn't seen it for a while on its evening patrol, so was wondering if something had happened to it.

Also, I decided not to ferment the hedgehog (in case someone was wondering).