Hedgehogs

[bednobs]

have new camera in the garden and last night a hedgehog came trundling past
why arent they hibernating and what should i feed it?

[Tilly2]

Perhaps it's stirred because it's warmed up a bit.

Dried dog or cat food and a bowl of fresh water.

[emmie]

What to feed hedgehogs
As opportunistic eaters, hedgehogs will readily consume food left out in your garden. The best foods to provide are:

Meat-based cat or dog food
Specially-made hedgehog food
Cat biscuits
As well as providing food, you can put out a shallow dish of water to ensure any visiting hogs stay hydrated

[Buenchico]

Quote:
"[Q] What should I feed a hedgehog?

[A] Hedgehogs are insectivores, so the best diet is the bugs and grubs in your garden, which will also help keep the ‘pests’ down. Therefore, the best way to feed hedgehogs would actually be to encourage more insects into your garden. You can do this by leaving some areas a bit wild, planting native plants and shrubs, creating log piles, putting in bug hotels and having fresh water available (ideally a wildlife pond with a ramp for mammals to climb out).

However, to encourage them in to your garden you could offer a ‘top-up’ meal of a good meaty-based diet. We recommend a small dish of any meat flavour dog or cat food, plus a handful of dog or cat biscuits to keep their teeth healthy. Feeding hedgehogs in your garden should only be a supplement to their natural diet, or to help them during the harder Winter months, so it is important to not offer too much of any one type of food.

Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant so milk can make them very ill and should never be offered. Instead, put out a dish of fresh water each night. Hedgehogs are active during the night, so the best time to put out food is just after dusk, when they are starting to search for food. The Autumn and Winter months are the most important for them to find food to put on enough weight before hibernation, so always make sure you put out food at this time of year.

[Q] When do hedgehogs hibernate?

[A] Typically, hedgehogs hibernate from late December / early January until late March time. However, this is very dependent on the weather and the individual hedgehog, as some will hibernate earlier or later and some not at all!"

Source:
https://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/hedgehog-fact-sheet/

[Tuvok]

Never milk or bread.

Not mealworms -

Dog/cat fog (not fish or gravy ones)

Hedgehog food - mix of pinhead oats, rolled oats, sunflower hearts

[bednobs]

if i put catfood out the cat'll eat it. do they eat dried mealworms?

[Tuvok]

Not mealworms - use calciworms instead

[bednobs]

sorry tuvok x posted :)

[Tuvok]

Mealworms are not good for them.

[Tuvok]

Ham, cicien, turkey slices/hits

[Tuvok]

Chicken bit (ipad typing playing up!)

[sherrardk]

I feed mine a ready made hedgehog food. I use a feeding station to stop cats, etc stealing the food and to provide the hedgehogs with a bit of safety. My feeder is about three foot away from my back door and they’ll use it whilst I am outside. I’ve splashed out on a new feeding station this year, it’s about 3 times bigger than the old one as they were queuing up to get in it last year.

[roopower]

Its a bit of a worry that the hedgehog is out, even though it's less cold. Does it look a good size? They should be at least 600grams which is difficult to guage. It might have woken up hungry, there wont be many slugs and bugs around at the moment.

[bednobs]

i suppose it could have been a large rat!
it was raining so not all that easy to see

[Chipchopper]

I think the sudden rise of temperature made him break his hibernation.
I saw several bees visiting my snowdrops in yesterday's sunshine.