I keep reading on various hedgehog sites that hedgies don’t come dependent on the food we give them as there should be plenty of insects to eat – when i’m hedgehog watching, they only eat a little bit at one time, but it takes them ages to eat a small amount, and I’ve noticed that the same hedgehogs come back later in the night to have a little nibble more.
I also notice, that they are constantly foraging aswell, when they walk away from the feeding station, they often stop in their tracks with nose to the ground I expect they’ve found something tasty to eat.
I put quite a lot of food out, but I think I have quite a few visiting, I know there is a minimum of four – don’t think they all visit every night – especially since i made the feeding station – but I do have two regulars, the big hedgehog who I call ‘mummy’ at the moment, and a little hedgehog that makes cute sounds when she eats – I’ve noticed she’d grown a bit since last month.
I put two dishes out – I use a kidney shaped bowl from Ark Wildlife, that was sold as a water dish I put a layer of Spikes in it (which they don’t like that much, Morrisons, which they wolfed down each night, has sold out and not been in stock for two weeks) and then a layer of poultry cat biscuits (which they seem to like a bit more)- I have the another same kidney shaped bowl for their water (which I keep outside the station). And then I’ve got a very small shallow dish which I put about 2 tablespoons of dog food in it – A can of winalot lasts me about 4 nights.
With the morrisons dried food 400g pack, I was getting through that just over a week, but with the spikes it’s not going down as fast, I buy a small box of GoCat biscuits each week.
If Morrisons restocks, I’ll ditch the cat biscuits, but only using them as they don’t eat much of spikes – the slugs and snails love Spikes though.
The little dish of dog food gets eaten in one go by the first hedgehog to get there – with the morrisons food, the dish was nearly always empty in the morning, but now I’ve changed to spikes not much of it gets eaten. I’m having to bin some of it when I wash the bowl out.
How much are you feeding them and what are you feeding them? I wouldn’t worry too much – I think it’s best to give hedgehogs some food rather than not at all, especially as they have to fatten up for hibernation- I reckon they might have more chance of survival if we feed them, especially for hoglets who desperately need to fatten up for winter.
I’m constantly worrying about whether or not I’m doing the right thing too – so glad to have this forum.
