To ask you to please help hedgehogs and other wildlife prepare for winter

[Pricklesinperil]

It is literally a lifeline for them as the weather gets warmer.

if you’d like to know about other ways to help, please go to Help hedgehogs

thank you

Note from MNHQ - please do read the Op's latest update (October 2022) before responding.

Also, I have small wildlife ponds. I thought a plank of wood would be enough as a ramp. It was not and I found an adult dead hedgehog. Terrible guilt. With ponds, please please.make sure you have multiple exit points, not just a plank of wood as you see on so many advice sites. Ideally, a sloping gravel bank into your pond is best. Just to add :)

@childofthecorn wise advice and thank you for sharing your story about one of the hazards facing hedgehogs. Hedgehog garden hazards

if anyone would like to know more about how to make their garden hedgehog friendly- watch this video from Hedgehog Street

In the boundary between me & my LEFT-hand side neighbour live some hedgehogs.
My neighbour to the RIGHT of me has always fed them.
So my front garden is a hedgehog highway!

Every evening several large hedgehogs march past my house, making one helluva racket, slip under my right side gate & through the hedgehog hole in the fence into my neighbour's garden.

I don't know what he feeds them but they're big & look very healthy. It's lovely to see them.

What lovely hedgehog news! You told it very well @MenopauseSucks 😄

please log your hedgehog highway here if you haven’t already! Hedgehog map

All logged on the hedgehog map!

We built a pond with a little shallow end of pebbles. They can drink to their hearts content.

👏

we have several dishes and birdbaths - at least 3 hedgehogs drinking from the bowls. Lots of activity a couple of weeks ago, now more shagpad stuff tonight. We also leave dog food (no fish) and kitten biscuits under a pallet. The sound of proper hog gruntiness is both delightful and hilarious

I found a hedgehog in my garden last week, so I bought some hegehog food & I've been putting some out with a bowl of water each night. She (or he) appears every night just after 10pm and has a good feed and drink before wandering off.

It's so lovely to sit and watch - in fact I'm considering buying a wildliife cam so I can keep theimages - and see what happens during the night!

@MurderAtTheBeautyPageant

So someone specifically formulates hedgehog food but it is actively bad for them? I’d like to see some actual explanation of this rather than just accepting the word of some random person on the internet.

I’ll offer in defence of my viewpoint one fairly lively hedgehog who can run like the clappers if so minded and who has been around for a few years now….

Loving the hedgehog map! I’ve logged my hedgehog and the hedgehog hole!

What a great thread, sadly I’ve never seen hedgehogs in my garden, always thought it was because of the foxes and badgers but maybe not.

I lived here for years and never saw one.

Then one night a few years ago when we had one of those weeks where it is too hot to sleep I was reading in the garden, about 11pm and something walked under my legs, at first I thought it was a cat, nope a huge hog, I named her Drucilla and started putting out food and water and in no time had half a dozen visiting most nights, it was like they had a rota.

As well as cat food I've given them left over cooked chicken, I tried boiled eggs, but these guys are fussy.

We have a family of hedgehogs who patrol our back gardens, and as we have shared access to our gardens (Victorian semis), we all leave our back gates open so they can roam right through. I’ve also removed a bit of my fence so they can get into my other neighbour’s garden, and put in a set of hedgehog ‘steps’, so they can scramble up to the raised bit at the back of my plot. Noisy buggers, but lovely to watch.

The map is really interesting. There have been a few sightings on my side of town, though nowhere that close.

😀Yes! Courting hedgehogs sound so loud and it is such an unusual noise. If anyone would like to know what they actually sound like, please watch this video -

Thanks for doing that small thing that really helps hedgehogs @HopeSpringsInfernal

if you haven’t already, please log your sighting on Hedgehog Street _ Big hedgehog map. Your data helps them in their campaign to ensure that hedgehogs remain a common and familiar part of British life.

if you do decide to get a wildlife cam, Hedgehog Street would love to receive any recordings you’d like to share. They have a gallery and a space to share your story. Hedgehog Street gallery. If they use your videos or stories in their campaign, you’ll receive full credit

Here’s what Hedgehog Street recommend as supplementary food for hedgehogs -Feeding hedgehogs

👏

@Squirrelly1 - you’ve highlighted exactly what the Hedgehog Street campaign is all about. Everyone used to see hedgehogs regularly. Hedgehog Street want to make sure the hedgehog, the UK’s only spiny mammal, remains a common and familiar part of British life.

They know that hedgehogs are in trouble. In the UK, we’ve lost a third of all our hedgehogs since the millenium.

If you’d like to, please consider becoming a hedgehog champion. The more people know about what hedgehogs need, the greater the chance of more gardens becoming hedgehog friendly. They are round, albeit in greatly reduced numbers, but their biggest challenge is not being able to access gardens due to fences and walls. Become a hedgehog champion

I figure if the British Hedgehog Preservation Society is selling hedgehog food on its website then it’s probably OK to feed that.

We have a nightly visitor that mystifies our cat.

Sounds lovely @Libertybear80 im planning on introducing a pond in my front garden to encourage more wildlife. I’m looking for ideas so please share a photo if you’d like to

Love that photo @Dreikanter Wish we could see the look on your cats face! 😀

Cat’s expression was WTF is this weird prickly thing? It was quite amusing.

😍😍😍