Hi there. I understand exactly what your saying. I live on a street where just about every household has at least 1 or 2 cats. I stopped putting tinned cat/dog food out after observing the feeding stations I had set up with cat food and mr spikes moist biscuits and the hedgehogs went for the moist biscuits first and more often ignored the tinned food. I’ve had up to 5 hedgehogs in my garden at any one time, varying in size and I’ve spent hours watching their antics, pushing each other out the way and huffing and puffing at each other to get to the bowl of food so I decided to spread the food around the garden on the understanding that they forage for their natural foods and although I have a pet feeder that I keep in a place where I can see what comes to eat out of it I also throw handfuls of the biscuits on the lawn around paving stones and log piles and into the flat parts of the flower borders that the hedgehogs use on their way to the feeding stations and the hedgehogs find these clusters and eat everything and it means that each one can eat peacefully without having to fight for it. Cats don’t like eating off the ground. I don’t put the food out until it is just starting to get dark – at the moment around 8.30pm because the small hedgehogs seem to come out at that time.
I also put out a bowl of hedgehog crumble that I buy in a big tub that is full of insects etc. And the little hedgehogs love it but the cats don’t. I have a large bowl of water that I keep in the area as well and freshen up every evening because the birds use it as a bath during the day. It’s an old washing machine portal window. Just the right head night for the hogs whereas I find they are a bit careless with their feet and constantly tipping the water out of shallow bowls.
I’ve tried to make my garden as cat proof as I can with plastic stiff netting on wobbly poles about 3’ higher than the top of the fence so cats can’t jump over and because they can’t sit on top of it they can’t get down the other side and they don’t like feeling insecure so they go a different way and give up. I still have one that has learned to get on my garage and climb down the Rose trellis into my garden but at site of me at the window scarpers quick! I’ve never touched this cat but I have chased it barking like a dog!
I hope this helps. I didn’t want the hedgehogs to give up on foraging for their natural food just because it was made easy for them so this way they are still following their instincts to search for food.
