Wild Things Hedgehog Food, 2 KG

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Oranges – oranges are another no-go fruit. In fact, all citrus fruits including lemons and limes are too acidic for hogs. Over time, they can do damage to his digestive tract and put your hog at risk

Grapes – grapes can be toxic for hedgehogs and can damage their liver and kidneys. Do not feed your hog grapes under any circumstancesIf you opt for store-bought hedgehog food, just make sure the ingredients list predominantly fresh meat and not artificial ingredients. This will add no nutritional value to your hedgehogs diet. Room to roam: Hedgehogs are natural foragers and need access to large areas to find food, accommodation and a mate. However if by feeding hedgehogs you begin feeding all the other animals in the area (including your neighbours cat!) you may want to consider how you can provide a vip area and exclude the riff raff. This is actually relatively straight forward to do and a well designed hedgehog feeding station can provide the exclusive dining that your spiny guest will be grateful for. You will also be content knowing that your well thought out menu is not feeding tibbles. Processed foods – don’t be tempted to feed your hog some of your leftover dinner, this could be toxic or just increase weight gain

Then find a sheltered spot in your garden for a hedgehog feeding station, designed to stop cats, birds and foxes from eating the food. Fill it with lots of hedgehog-safe food and water at sunset, ideally using a hedgehog food bowl and a hedgehog water bowl. Only put out small amounts of food as this is to supplement their diet. The main bulk of the diet is caterpillars, beetles, millipedes, earthworms and earwigs. Slugs form a very small percentage of their diet (and transmit lungworm). They also eat frogs, toads, small mammals, carrion, and eggs. It is thought that any fruit and vegetable matter is eaten incidentally (i.e. attached to their food) rather than intentionally. Diet will vary with habitat – and available species. Hedgehogs will drink water from natural sources such as puddles, but leaving out a shallow dish of fresh, plain water is the best way to ensure they stay hydrated all year round. What is Hedgehog Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD)? Hedgehog biscuits are also good for their teeth, do not freeze in winter, or go off and attract flies in summer.

How else can you help hedgehogs?

Neither are mealworms!! Or peanuts, or biscuits, or cake, or wagon wheels, or any of the other, frankly ridiculous things which people feed wild animals. However, cat and dog food is nutritionally balanced and complete, and will NOT cause skeletal deformities, raging tooth decay, nutritional deficiencies or spine and fur loss – all of which occur with an inappropriate diet. It is not essential to feed the hedgehogs, if they are doing alright without it. What we feed, should only ever be supplementary to what they can find themselves. The idea is not to encourage them to become too dependant upon us. But there are times, when they would welcome a helping hand, for instance when it is very dry and before hibernation when they are trying to build up their resources and after hibernation when they will probably be quite hungry. Also if they are still around late into the year when the wild food is diminishing, etc. A very important thing, for them, though, is water. They cannot always find that for themselves, so if you don’t have a pond, a large shallow plant saucer is ideal for them. As I said previously, when we were feeding the wildies with cat food, yes, the neighbourhood cats were very happy 😉 I didn’t want to have an enclosed feeder, so swapped to feeding the ark wildlife biscuits and hedgehog mix, which the local cats dont touch (and they were pretty miffed!). You have two choices – feed a hedgehog biscuit/mix the cats wont touch such as Arks, OR place the food in a cat proof feeder. You can buy these (riverside woodcraft do a great feeding station) Hedgehogs living in the wild will feed on a range of things and tend to survive on a ‘whatever they can get their claws on’ basis. If the lady had not caught him and brought him in, we dread to think of how he would have suffered in the wild with no help 🙁