Apparently the ‘you shouldn’t feed hogs fish flavoured food’ is an ‘old wives tale’.
This is some information I found, from Vale Wildlife about feeding wild hedgehogs:
http://www.valewildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Feeding-wild-hedgehogs.pdf
If you’ve found something (and it’s decent food) that the hogs like, it’s best not to keep changing it, or they might go on strike for a few days and not eat the new stuff anyway.
Also agree about what we feed being only supplementary. One of the most important things we can do for the hogs is to improve and increase the area of decent habitat so that they can find wild food for themselves. That’s much better and more natural for them than anything we can come up with.
So, it would help the hogs to make our own gardens more wildlife friendly, encourage others to do likewise and link our gardens with other gardens, through hedgehog highways. Hog highways, not only give the hogs access to a wider area to forage in, but also potentially contribute to keeping them off the roads.
I’m not saying don’t offer supplementary food at all. There are times and probably places where it’s difficult for the hogs to find sufficient wild food, so that what we feed can top up what they find in the wild and make a difference. Just that feeding alone is not enough, they need good habitat as well.
Don’t forget to always leave water out for the hogs.
