Wilko have been selling calci worms for a while now, 500g for £4:50 which is a good price I think. Also available under their more accurate name of black soldier fly larvae in Poundstretcher but not as good value and in small packs of under 100g for £1. I’ve been feeding hogs with them since last year. I include a few mealworms now and again as a treat but they eat the calci worms no problem. They also like the chewy cat sticks, tried several sources and they always get eaten first. I avoid the fish flavours though.
After reading the scientific papers about calcium deficiency my conclusion was that the reported issues with hedgehogs have probably stemmed from people keeping them as pets (the african pygmy ones) and feeding them almost exclusively on mealworms which has inevitably caused problems. If you feed a variety of foods, including the balanced pet foods, then its highly unlikely that a wild hog will get such an imbalanced diet to cause calcium deficiency.
Keeping them for long periods in captivity, such as in a sanctuary to recover from injury or overwintering, is a different situation to a freely roaming wild animal and in those circumstances the best plan would be to make sure they get a known balanced food like kitten pellets all the time.
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