sorry folks if this is distressing – but important that people see this.
Hedgehog Bottom says:
“You want to see what happens when you feed hedgehogs on piles of mealworms, peanuts and sunflower hearts?
Their offspring suffer from Metabolic Bone Disease. Fractures, bendy bones, inability to walk. Transparent bones under x-ray.
There is no cure at this stage for a wild animal.
We have worked with Vale wildlife and other rescues to do the research on why this was happening and in pretty much every case the evidence came back that where they were found people were putting out bowls full of mealworms, sunflower hearts and peanuts.
We don’t just pick these things out of thin air, this hoglet is suffering from MBD and there is no fixing it once it gets to this stage. Deformed and missing long bone ends, fractures where there shouldn’t be any. He was put to sleep.
Do not give bread, milk, mealworms, peanuts or sunflower hearts. Stick to nutritious food – hedgehog biscuits or cat biscuits, tinned meaty dog food, any flavour including fish is fine, and plenty of fresh water.”
