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.

A young lad was making hedgehog houses/feeding boxes on Springwatch tonight. It was lovely to see.

@HopeSpringsInfernal stealth hedgehog! 😀

Thanks @Mrstiggywinkle44 we are indeed blessed. It’s been wonderful to hear, just on this thread, the little things that kind people are doing to help wildlife thrive.

noted about badgers co-existing- the information I posted on this thread when people asked was from the Hedgehog Street website.

interesting to hear your hedgehogs are on a cycle too! Do you know why?

@RichardOsmansXRaySpecs oooh really? I haven’t had a chance to watch Springwatch yet, will catch up soon. So glad to hear that they’ve included hedgehogs. Thanks for sharing

@StarDolphins mealworm are dangerous for hedgehogs, leave dry kitten biscuits out for them instead

I've just hag a lovely surprise - 'my' hog was in the feeding station munching away, and a second hog appeared in the garden! I'm so chuffed.

Hog #1 wouldn't let the second anywhere near the food - it sat in the feeding station and hissed at the poor wee thing, so it wandered off after a while - fiingers crossed it comes back

*had

I have genuinely never seen a hedgehog. My sister has a hedgehog family in her garden…she is so lucky. Her night cams are amazing…she leaves out water and shredded food for them .

@HopeSpringsInfernal What brilliant hedgehog news! 🦔

I had exactly the same thing and I set up another feeding station for the second hog as the first one seemed to eat everything in the first feeding station!

thank you for everything you’re doing to help hedgehogs. If you have already, please log your hedgehog sighting in the big hedgehog map Big hedgehog map

@FrustareNT that’s wonderful news about your sister’s hedgehog visitors! If she hasn’t already, could you ask her to log them on Hedgehog Street’s big hedgehog map? Here’s the link . The sighting information helps Hedgehog Street’s campaign to keep hedgehogs a common and familiar part of British life.

You could put your own post code in and see if there have been any sightings nearby. Often, hedgehogs are around but they can’t access people’s gardens. I’ll leave this video for you. It’s Hedgehog Street’s ten tips to help hedgehogs.

We have verification that the hedgehog is alive and well living under our shed!! Housemate was sitting in the garden at 2220hrs last night and said hog bustled out from under the shed, across the patio then disappeared behind the greenhouse! I was fast asleep at that point but am determined to sit outside myself tonight

@blobby10 brilliant to know it was a hedgehog that was making the most of the water and food you were leaving out! Please come back and tell us when you see the hedgehog yourself! 🦔

Bumping as it’s been a hot day (at least it has been on the South Coast). Please do leave out shallow dishes of fresh water each night - it really is a lifeline to hot and thirsty hedgehogs who might not be able to access any other water sources.

Thanks for the reminder have just filled up the shallow water dish for hedgehog as well as the one the birds like the bathe in and another shallow dish with marbles in it for the bees. Hope fully that’s all garden visitors covered!

@WhatTheWhoTheWhatThe You have been so thoughtful for the needs of all possible garden visitors, thank you. Every time I return to this thread, it is a real joy to find others that are doing little things that give wildlife the help they so badly need.

No I don't like hedgehogs.

What?? Why on earth not? 😆
They've got to be the most inoffensive animal there is.

I’ve a question - the last couple of nights (at least!) the hedgehog food has been swamped with slugs. Should I continue to put it out, given that hedgehogs will eat slugs too?

Yes please do @Dreikanter as you rightly say, the natural diet of the hedgehog consists of invertebrates like slugs. The food we put out is just a supplement to that diet. That’s why hedgehogs are the gardeners friend 🦔. Admittedly, food crawling with slugs looks very wrong to us but it’s a feast for hedgehogs!

here’s the link to the info that hedgehog street give about hedgehog diet if anyone is interested in reading some more Hedgehog diet

Good - that’s what me and the next door neighbour thought.

@Dreikanter you and your neighbour are hedgehog stars ⭐️ Thank you!

sorry if you’ve already done it but please log your hedgehogs on the map Hedgehog map

I’ve logged our hog visitor on the map.

Hoping that we get a repeat of last year when Mrs Hog brought her hoglets to visit.

RichardOsmansXRaySpecs because the wreck absolute havoc on ground nesting birds eating eggs and chicks and are an invasive species.

Invasive species? I assume you’re not in the UK then as they are native here.

Hedgehogs are in real trouble and it’s a shame they eat ground nesting eggs/chicks but that is the cycle of life. If they didn’t eat them another predator is likely to.

We have destroyed the hedgehogs’ natural habitat so we need to do our utmost to help them and make sure they don’t become extinct.

Hedgehogs are classed as an invasive species on UK islands where they have been introduced such as the Hebrides and Scillies.

But not on the mainland - hedgehogs are listed as vulnerable on the UK Red List.