Hi YonderDave
You may not have noticed that this topic is very old – from 1917. It is unfortunate that it was brought back into prominence (by a previous post). Feeding advice has moved on since then. Hedgehog Street now recommends: a combination of meat-based wet dog or cat food, hedgehog food or cat biscuits. https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/feed-hedgehogs/
Thank you for emphasising the dangers of whole peanuts, although since I can remember the advice was not to feed whole peanuts to hedgehogs. Even for birds it isn’t recommended to feed peanuts whole, for similar reasons and whole peanuts should be put in containers so that the birds have to peck pieces out and not eat them whole – or especially feed them to their young.
But peanuts and seeds are also not so good for hedgehogs because of the ratio of calcium to phosphorous which, similar to mealworms, but to a slightly lesser extent, can contribute to bone problems.
None of the stuff we feed hedgehogs is particularly good for them. Ideally we all need to be making more effort to create suitable habitat for them, so that they can find their own food. That is what is best for them.
