Homes for Hedgehogs
Hedgehog Food & Drink
The best way to satisfy a hedgehog’s hunger is to create an environment where their natural prey is abundant. Since a hedgehog’s main diet is made up of Invertebrates like beetles, caterpillars and earwigs, having a ready supply of these will provide a smorgasbord of crunchy treats. Because of this, having a wilder area in your garden with a log pile, will help attract insects, which hedgehogs are very partial to.
You may also want to eliminate insecticide, else you’re killing the hedgehogs natural food supply. Slug Pellets can poison a hedgehog, so should be avoided if possible. If you would like to supplement your hedgehog’s diet, definitely stay away from bread and milk, opting instead for meat based cat or dog food, cat biscuits or high quality specialist hedgehog food – where meat is the first named ingredient. You can even build a feeding station that will stop larger mammals like Foxes and cats from getting to the food before your hedgehog does.
WildNet - Gillian Day
Hedgehogs will travel up to 2km a night foraging for food, so may not visit your garden every single night, although the more food on offer, the more likely they are to be repeat guests. Equally as important is water. Whilst hedgehogs will get a lot of their food from their Prey, putting out shallow bowls of water in hot weather is very helpful. Hedgehogs will also drink from puddles and Ponds, but make sure there is a way for your hedgehog to get out of a pond – hedgehogs can swim, but they will drown if they can’t get out of deep water.
Keeping a ready supply of food and water will definitely make your garden a more attractive prospect for hedgehogs. Let us know what your hedgehogs like to eat by sharing on social media with the #Homesforhedgehogs
Thank you for being a hedgehog hero
This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actions you can take to protect Somerset’s hedgehogs. See below for some more ideas, and look out for emails from us over the next three months as we share lots of tips, ideas and fun facts about hedgehogs and how you can help the hogs in your garden.
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We’d love to see your pictures of your hedgehog holes and highways! You can share them with us on social media by tagging us and using the hashtag #Homesforhedgehogs
