Hi Deeb 74
I’m really pleased to hear the hog hasn’t been out in the day again. Hopefully it found you in time.
Not wanting to detract from your excitement, but the best things to feed hedgehogs are cat/dog food, cat/kitten biscuits and hedgehog food, provide water and nothing else. simbo65 is right, mealworms, dried or live are not good for hogs and can be positively bad for them. As well as not providing sufficient nutrients, they have the wrong ratio of calcium to phosphorous which means that the calcium can be leached from the bones. It is particularly dangerous for hoglets. They can also become addicted to them. Please pas this information on to your friends at the hedgehog highway team. (I’m really pleased to hear that they exist!) High fat foods can also be bad for hogs, in the same way that they are for humans, so I would say cut out fat balls too.
I don’t imagine any damage will have been done in such a short time, but please start feeding cat/dog/hog food (as you mention you’re planning) and cut out the rest. What we feed should only be supplementary and anything you can do to make their habitat better would be brilliant. Wild food is what’s really best for them, but as things stand, there isn’t enough suitable habitat around for them, hence the supplementary feeding – food and especially water, particularly welcome in this hot dry weather.
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/helpful-garden-features/
Please leave water out 24 hours a day – the birds will probably enjoy it too!
If you are worried about the hog, please ring your local carer to get their advice. You can get the number from BHPS 01584 890801. They will tell you the best thing to do. If you do need to catch a hog at any time, put it in a high sided cardboard box with newspaper on the bottom and lots of torn up paper for them to hide in. Don’t forget to put food and water in as well. They will probably spill the water (newspaper at the bottom handy for soaking that up). Be aware that hogs are VERY good at escaping from boxes! Alternatively I usually use a cat carrier.
Good luck and happy hogwatching.
