To ask if you to do just one little thing this evening..

[BooksAreMyOnlyFriends]

Put out some water to help the hedgehogs and other wildlife. My local rescue is inundated with hedgehogs at the moment. Mostly abandoned dehydrated babies. A lot don't make it

Leave food too if you can. Any cheap dry cat food is good. If you have no food, don't worry, just leave water. Leave lots of dishes scattered about your front garden and back garden and remember to fill them before it gets dark.


Other things that can help:

Try and make sure fences have gaps so the hedgehogs can garden hop.

Be careful when gardening and leave plenty of cover for wildlife to escape under.

If at all possible don't use slug pellets and other chemicals around the garden.

But most importantly, get the WATER ready for tonight and help our prickly friends stay healthy and feed their babies ❤

[Unburnished]

Just done this, front and back. I suspect I have them due to ‘presents’ left.

[BooksAreMyOnlyFriends]

I'm worried about our holiday too. I'll have to ask the neighbours to come over to fill the water bowls if it's still dry. I wish this bloody drought would end soon, it feels like we've had no proper rain in weeks, looks like last night's forecasted rain didnt happen either .

[Aprillygirl]

Nice post OP and although I'm not sure about leaving food out, due to me not wanting to encourage the foxes, I will certainly be leaving water out for the wee creatures in future.

[Thegreymethod]

@BooksAreMyOnlyFriends it happened for us we had a huge thunderstorm last night plenty of watered hedgehogs around!

[megletthesecond]

A bloody wasp is drinking out of the bird water. I.would have preferred something cuter 🙄.

[IceniSky]

We have 2 highways, a hog shelter, pond, wild areas and I've never seen one. We live by woodlands too. I built the small pond for the frog, but no frogs this year. No bats in our box but lots of moths.

We do have a pigeon sitting on an egg in our grape vine right over our setting area.

[HerculePoirotsGreyCells]

We've been doing this for the last couple of years. Hoggy Diner is topped up with meat flavoured cat biscuits and water. It's used every night. Love hedgehogs!

[timeforawine]

I've got food and water for these little guys :-)
Have a big fat one runs round my patio hoovering up spilled bird seed, such a cutie

[SunshineCake]

A few years ago we had to get the RSPCA round as a hedgehog had fallen down a drain. He was rescued, checked, fed then released. Haven't seen him since. Would love hedgehogs but we have visiting foxes so just put water out as the foxes or our dog and cats would eat the food.

[Zoidbergonthehalfshell]

Good post, OP.

We have a hedgehog feeding station with a little house attached, fitted with CCTV (DH is a techno geek), and we're almost certain that a sow has made her nest in there and that last night we saw her feeding her hoglets!

[lmusic87]

I put a little dish out yesterday, birds are suffering too

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Our neighbour’s garden is a real haven for wildlife. She has at least 2 hedgehogs living there and was worried about what would happen to them and her resident birds while she was on holiday recently. My ds’s took over the feeding / watering duties for the fortnight and loved it!

We’ve recently had some work done in our garden, the frencing guys thought I was mad when I asked for a hole to be but in the bottom of it for the 🦔 !

[SunshineCake]

I think I'll buy a bird bath. Can't have my house or feeder anymore or else the cats will think it's snack time .

[BooksAreMyOnlyFriends]

It's so lovely to be among so many hedgie lovers.

Just reminding everyone to put water out tonight and food as well if you can. Lots of babies are being born at the moment and the mummies need to be able to feed them so it's vital they can drink enough.

Even if you've never seen a hedgehog in your garden it doesn't mean you don't get them visiting.

[starfishcoffee]

Now doing it.

[Fishlegs]

Wow, thanks for this Books. We have just ‘rewilded’ our inner city front garden (aka stopped cutting the grass) and a couple of mornings ago we found the faeces of an unknown animal on the doorstep. Thanks to this thread I have just discovered we have hedgehogs!

The kids have just very excitedly put out water.

[TamzinGrey]

These three little babies were born in one of our hedgehog houses last summer.

We've made a hedgehog cafe from a plastic storage box and the neighbourhood hogs all race to get in there first at nightfall.

[shinynewapple]

I've just put some water out in metal puppy dish. I remember seeing one in our garden last year as the dog had found it and didn't know what to make of its prickles. But - I'm a bit confused now as my garden doesn't have space under the fences, so, would he have been trapped or just gone out the way he came in? We have side access to our back garden from the front so have put the dish down the entry, but maybe better in front garden under the bushes?

[AGnu]

We saw one for the first time in years yesterday. I put a dish of water near it & left it alone. DH has just got back from the shops with some cat food for it. I hope it comes back now!

[twelveeleven]

Done!

[Whyisitsodifficult]

Any other food ideas as we don’t have any cat food?

[shieldmaidenofrohan]

Water out, I just put it in the middle of the lawn near the very overgrown herbaceous borders, is that good ? We have foxes and cats so I don't want to put out food as my greedy piggie cat will eat it

[EmeraldShamrock]

Great post OP. I read it earlier, I went straight out to load up the bird table, I don't think we have hedge hawks, we do get the odd fox in the front.

[BooksAreMyOnlyFriends]

Whyisitsodifficult

I'm pretty sure the only recommended food is cat/dog biscuits as it's got the nutrients they need. It's very cheap. We use around a box a week, 90p from Asda. Poultry varieties are best. If you don't have any put some on your shopping list. Getting the water out there is the most important thing.

[Whyisitsodifficult]

Thanks I’m happy to buy some I just wanted to do something tonight after reading your post, I’ll put some water down. Good work.