How many of you feed hedgehogs in your garden. And if you do, what do you give them?
The hedgehog is the most common mammal that we deal with at Vale Wildlife, treating between 800 - 1,000 every year and I am amazed at the number of people who still believe that they should be given bread & milk.
Cow's milk contains lactose, a natural sugar, but it cannot be digested by mammals. Larger mammals such as cats, & even us humans cope with it without too many problems because of our size (although I wouldn't recommend giving it to cats either!). But for small mammals drinking cow's milk can actually be fatal. The smaller the mammal, the more problems it can cause.
Bread is no good either as it fills the animal up but does not have much goodness in it. The animal feels as if it has eaten plenty, but lacks the vitamins & minerals that it needs to stay healthy. We have seen ducks & geese, fed bread on a daily basis, starving to death because of their poor diet.
Tell us about the hedgehogs that visit your garden.
We have fed our hedgehogs for a few years. They initially had whole peanuts (which were actually put out for the woodpigeons!). Last year I noticed a Fox cub in the garden and started putting out Beta puppy food (the dry stuff) - the hedgehogs took to this straight away so this is what they now have (I didn't see the Fox again though). They also have a supply of fresh water which is topped up by one of those automatic watering devices.
I have seen the Fox on a few occasions this year, but we have a lot less hedgehogs than normal. Last year I counted at least 7 (having seen them all at once!), this year I have only seen one or two and their visits are pretty irregular. It probably doesn't help that I had to deliver 5 to VWR over the Winter....
That's what we are here for. Hedgehog numbers are apparently declining, and nobody seems to know why at the moment. Our numbers have also been going down in recent years.
A word of warning - whole peanuts are not a good idea as they can stick in the throats of both birds and mammals and cause choking. Always crush peanuts if they are not in a feeder, and make sure any feeders have small enough mesh not to allow whole ones through.
