Hungry Hedgehogs

At this time of year, it is a great idea to start helping out any prickly visitors to your garden.

Youngsters will be fending for themselves, and adults will now start to focus their energy on gearing up for winter.

As wild animals the best food for hedgehogs is of course all the insects they can snuffle in your gardens, so please do leave some nice wild areas for them – the more insects you attract the more hedgehogs and garden birds will arrive too. Leaf litter, compost heaps and log piles are great additions to your garden, and will soon fill with all sorts of insects.

Whilst hedgehogs don’t particularly favour slugs and snails, they do eat them when ‘tastier’ foods aren’t available, however, they can carry a nasty parasite which can cause lungworm in hedgehogs. To help our spiky friends along it would be great to offer a dish of water and a dish of tinned dog or cat food, as well as some crunchy kitten biscuits. This supplementary meal will help hedgehogs stay healthy and start gaining that all-important weight!

Please don’t forget that if you see a hedgehog out in the day it will likely be sick or injured and in need of help – please call us on 01844 292292 if you are worried about a hedgehog.

To learn more about hedgehogs, please do take a look at our Factsheet.