Hedgehog advice

[Pinkshrimp]

I was thrilled to see a hedgehog ambling across the lawn when I got the cat in the other week. I had seen hedgehog poop a couple of times, weeks and weeks apart, so I didn’t think I had a regular visitor.

After seeing it myself I have been leaving water and food out each night but, when I went to put the food out recently, there were half a dozen slugs waiting by the dish. It seems I’ve trained the slugs to know what time feeding time is!

I keep leaving food out-hoping the slugs will attract the hedgehog- but does anyone have any tips? Is there a food that slugs hate but hedgehogs love? Do slug proof dishes exist?

You could leave a hedgehog "house" or pile of garden waste against a fence. We have one living under all garden waste so I just continue leaving it there! The pile is big now!

there were half a dozen slugs waiting by the dish. It seems I’ve trained the slugs to know what time feeding time is!

That really made me laugh!

What you’re doing is fine. Our dish is always full of slugs too that the hedgehog soon gobbles up.

I was planning to build a hedgehog house this weekend, I have a spot earmarked and have been looking at designs but had never even considered a pile of natural stuff more but I will do now.

Stones one massive one was even having a dip in the water dish!

Good to know Clee is there a best time of night to put food out? I saw it at 10pm so have been putting it out 9:30 ish. Maybe I need to do it later?

We use Spikes food and we do have fewer slugs this year but in the past we've also had slugs virtually waiting for the food to come out 😂 See it as an extra proteiny snack for the hogs.

Do be careful if you have a pond in your garden, make sure it has a ramp or rocks a hog can use to climb out if it fell in.

Ours have never used our hedgehog houses and just hibernate in the wilder flower beds - be careful when gardening in spring as we've had them hibernate right in the middle of beds. You soon get used to what their nests look like but we've disturbed a couple in the past, luckily we didn't wake them up in the process.

We put it out at dusk so about 8 at the minute but our cat eats it sometimes before the hedgehog gets to it so sometimes I have to put it out when we go to bed at 11. It’s always fine in the morning. I also throw food out at night fir the birds to eat at dawn and the hedgehog loves picking through it and it also munches the birdseed fallen from the feeders. It knows what it likes! Fifth year of us feeding it. There were three of them this summer but the two younger ones have wandered off elsewhere. I love looking out for them all through spring summer and autumn. Sweet little creatures.

I don’t have a pond so thats okay, I might forget the hedgehog house and just create a wild corner then if that’s their preference.

I do wait until the cat is in to put the food out because I know she will guzzle it if she’s out there.

Thanks all. Staying hopeful it will pick my garden to hibernate in.

You don't want your hog eating the slugs, they are carriers of lung worm. Have a google for more info.

If you’re not averse to killing the slugs then you can get beer traps that only allow slugs in. Put it next to the hedgehog food for a few nights.

After rescuing an injured hedgehog in our garden I was told that Purina One Sensitive cat food is the best for them, if you want to get some specific food for it. Also that decking is terrible for hedgehogs so avoid putting it in if you have hogs in your garden.

@userxx

You don't want your hog eating the slugs, they are carriers of lung worm. Have a google for more info.

Slugs are what they eat???

We don't feed ours. The whole point of a hedgehog is to eat your slugs so you don't need to put pellets down.

Tbh, I really don’t think people should feed hedgehogs, or any other wildlife.
It’s never a good idea and it makes me quite cross to see ‘hedgehog food’ for sale.

Wild animals must retain their wild instincts and the ability to find food for themselves, for their own safety.

All those years of feeding bread to ducks for example, it led to malnourished ducks so advice was changed which then led to people no longer feeding them or feeding them food they didn’t want, then the advice to feed bread had to be brought back because the ducks were now starving.
They have been reliant on humans and their health is suffering as a result.

Or foxes, people putting food out for them, trying to encourage and tame them.
The result is bolshy foxes entering homes and getting trapped and shot.

Do you have a very large garden as hedgehogs are great travellers and garden hop. Have a look to see where he or she is coming & going from and make sure it is kept clear as there may not be sufficient food in your garden alone (once all the slugs have been scoffed, that is)... we have a traveller and make sure he has access to next door and from there, the rest of the street.

It’s not a good idea to feed foxes, which are very territorial animals. Hedgehogs though are a different matter. They really struggle nowadays - modern agriculture & gardens & climate change- so help is desperately needed. Commercial hog food is supplementary, yes, but it is likely to mean a hog can avoid a miserable death through starvation. Who wants to starve to death? Not hedgehogs.

Separate point - what do you put in your hedgehog house? Newspaper, straw?

Hedgehogs though are a different matter. They really struggle nowadays - modern agriculture & gardens & climate change- so help is desperately needed. Commercial hog food is supplementary, yes, but it is likely to mean a hog can avoid a miserable death through starvation. Who wants to starve to death? Not hedgehogs.
Their main diet is slugs though, an absolutely abundant pest in most British gardens!
I have a hard time believing hedgehogs would starve without supplementary food.

If the cause of their catastrophic decline is largely due to pesticide usage/poor agricultural practices and lack of habitat and other human interventions then frankly, no amount of supplementary feeding is going to stop them going extinct.

Th advice is to leave food out for hedgehogs as they are declining in numbers. I live in a town and lots of neighbouring gardens have a lot of paving, some even have artificial grass! So, with food sources being scarce, I’m happy to try to help. I’ve either seen two separate hedgehogs or the first massive one has lost a lot of weight.

Not a massive garden but gaps through to 2 neighbouring gardens. We also have 2 side gates one permanently open and the other gate has a big gap at the bottom so no hedgehog will get trapped in our garden.

I’m not sure I could bring myself to have slugs drowning in beer. I might just have to put up with them sharing the food.

I’ve read to put leaves, straw, hay in hedgehog houses so I’ve been busily collecting leaves for a few weeks.

Have to agree to disagree on this subject I suppose.

I truly feel that if a wild animal requires heavy human help for basics like food to survive it’s beyond help.

Humans should be ashamed over the hedgehog as I do very much believe it’s destructive human practices like poisoned slugs (and I include beer trapped slugs there) and monoculture, loss of garden space etc that has caused their plight.
Very sad.

But regardless I can’t support feeding wildlife and ultimately making them reliant on humans.
It never ends well.

@Pinkshrimp Don't forget a big bowl of water, they drink loads. Keep your eye open for any smaller ones, if they are too small/young they won't be able to hibernate. Get as much food into them now as possible.

@Newjez Maybe read up a bit more about them. The point of a hedgehog is much more than keeping your garden free from slugs which actually are pretty far down their food chain.

We put the food out around dusk, about 8 at the moment. Peak hedgehog activity seems to be about 9pm here at the moment. We get lots of slugs coming to the food and drink too, our hogs ignore them and just eat the food. We use Spikes food, our cats don't tend to take it (they stay out till later and just watch the hedgehogs). We have lots of shrubs, narrow gaps between fences and sheds and a logpile, plus holes in our fences for them.

I've read and checked so many websites and articles about hedgehogs in our gardens, and they all advise to feed them. There is one wildlife expert who specialises in hedgehogs (PhD)! and she also recommends that we feed them.
I'd imagine that they are the only wild animal the experts make an exception for.

This is a fascinating thread . IMO and E hedgehogs NEED humans to feed them, only meat and veg though, and a shallow water bowl ( I put out a square plant pot saucer which ours drink and paddle in! A lot of cat food has wheat in it. It's important to read the labels. It's not good for any wildlfe. It encourages addiction and overweight.

Ref. slugs we used to have them but since the hedgehogs have frequented our garden , there are hardly any, none by their eating area anyway!

We have a shallow water bowl with a few big pebbles in it as islands to allow bees etc to climb out (we learnt this the hard way when a bumble bee drowned in our bowl).

I think feeding hedgehogs is on a par with feeding garden birds; they are suburban wildlife and impacted by lack of resources including food & shelter, so providing that in a domestic garden habitat is helpful.
You can also manage your garden to provide more natural food - no chemicals, lots of organic matter in the soil to encourage worms etc, unmown grass for beetles and so on.
And encourage neighbours to do the same!

......no chemicals, lots of organic matter in the soil to encourage worms etc. unmown grass for beetles and so on.....

Exactly Ihaventgot My neighbours here tend to be control freaks (I'm in rural Fr. but it's also true of some of the residents in the warden assisted flats in S. England where I stay with my mum often) with all aspects of their lives, I try to encourage them but there is soo much ignorance and resistance to fear of change.