Wild Things Hedgehog Food, 2 KG

Product Information

First of all, make sure that hedgehogs can get in and out of your garden (a hedgehog highway — get involved with the Hedgehog Street campaign!).

Oranges – oranges are another no-go fruit. In fact, all citrus fruits including lemons and limes are too acidic for hogs. Over time, they can do damage to his digestive tract and put your hog at risk If you were to feed a fully grown hob that is prone to weight gain, you should look into food that is lower in fat and protein, for example. Bread is something that many people have traditionally given to hedgehogs, as well as birds, of course. But it has little nutritional value and only serves to fill them up, meaning they won’t then go in search of more nutritious foods. A hole cut into the end will allow access for your hedgehog but an additional inner ‘wall’ will stop cats from reaching inside trying to hook out the dish. By leaving the food at the end of a dead end this will also make rats feel nervous and much less likely to raid the bounty.There are so many easy ways to support and provide food for hedgehogs, that there are simply never reasons to offer milk, salted food or sweets. Hedgehogs may well appear to be enjoying them but you could well be killing them with kindness. Do not feed these items. Placing food in hedgehog feeding stations is a great way to help feed wild hedgehogs. These stations can be placed in a safe spot within your garden and have enough space to place two dishes inside. Since these stations have a hinged roof and predator-protected entrance holes, they stop cats or foxes from stealing any of the food! Vitamin A 19,000 IU, Vitamin D3 1,900 IU, Vitamin E 110mg, Iron (Ferrous Sulphate Monohydrate): 40mg, Copper (Cupric Sulphate Pentahydrate): 7mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate): 30mg, Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate): 100mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous): 1mg, Selenium (Sodium Selenite): 0.25 mg. HEALTH BENEFITS - High in fibre with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. Ideal for maintaining healthy teeth and gums Ask yourself what they know about the care of wild hogs? How much research have they done? Sadly there are still some less enlightened and up to date rescues who tell people to feed these items. All I can say to you, is that the above information is EVIDENCE BASED, and supported by some of the largest and most experienced rescues and wildlife hospitals in the UK.

But, very few know much else about them, apart from the fact that sometimes people leave cat food out for them to eat from time to time.

WildThings Hedgehog Food

Every day I, and other rescues, see endless photos online of people feeding bowls of mealworms to their wild hogs. Mealworms (live and dry) are very high in phosphorous and low in calcium. Imagine a pair of scales – the amount of phosphorus consumed must not be more than the amount of calcium – to prevent bone loss AT LEAST as much calcium must be consumed, preferably more. So all these hogs being fed loads of mealworms are getting lots and lots of phosphorous and hardly any calcium. This is causing awful bone disease. This is happening because people are feeding their wild hogs diets high in mealworms, sunflower hearts and peanuts. All have very high levels of phosphorus and hardly any calcium. They are not a necessary part of a wild hogs diet, please avoid feeding them. You are feeding your wild hogs because you care about them – care enough to feed them nutritionally balanced food 🙂 Food contains calcium and phosphorus. The body of any mammal, (and others) needs blood levels of calcium and phosphorous to be correct to prevent illness. If too much phosphorous is eaten, calcium is taken from the body’s calcium stores (bones) to maintain the correct blood ratio of calcium and phosphorous. This causes bones to become poor density, soft, bendy and at worst deformed, and results in a hedgehog being barely able to walk due to pain, and at high risk of fractures. Hedgehogs are not insectivores as many people think. Studies have shown they are omnivorous. These studies have analysed faeces and stomach contents of wild hogs, and food preference trials in captive wild hedgehogs.

As well as providing food, it’s important to ensure hedgehogs can easily access your garden. An individual hog can range over a mile in a single evening, but when gardens are surrounded by impenetrable walls and fencing it becomes difficult for them to move around. Create a 'hedgehog highway' - a space of just 13 x 13cm to allow any hog to get in and out of your garden. You could ask neighbours' permission to make the gap in any shared boundaries, and encourage them to do the same on all sides to help local hedgehogs travel even further. Provide somewhere to sleepClear away any uneaten food in the morning and refill the dishes each evening so the food and water is always fresh. It’ll be quiet in winter, so start up the station in another season. Finally, ensure you always wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling the food and dishes (hedgehogs can spread diseases). How do you feed hedgehogs in your garden? Then find a sheltered spot in your garden for a hedgehog feeding station, designed to stop cats, birds and foxes from eating the food. Fill it with lots of hedgehog-safe food and water at sunset, ideally using a hedgehog food bowl and a hedgehog water bowl. Only put out small amounts of food as this is to supplement their diet. The recent post about poor little Gherkin, metabolic bone disease, and the issues with feeding mealworms, has led to someone asking if I could put something together about feeding wild hogs. I write this with the presumption that if you are reading it, you care greatly about the welfare of the hogs in your garden, and do not want to feed them things which are known to be harmful to their health. Please, on your part, also assume that this is written with the same aim, and with experience of caring for lots of hogs (hundreds), and also the shared experience of a huge UK network of wild hedgehog rehabilitators and wildlife hospitals. An easier option is dried cat or dog food. this is more easily stored and handled and if kept dry will not smell as strong and attract the wrong clientele. Boxes can be sourced easily from most food shops too and are relatively inexpensive. Hedgehogs are one of only a handful of mammals that hibernate in the winter but they are only inactive during the coldest months of December to February and can even be found out and about in the heart of winter if weather is unusually warm. Generally they will emerge fully during March foraging keenly to get into breeding condition. In the spring males will patrol large territories looking for females, often travelling over 2km each night.

Despite hedgehogs’ varied diet, there are of course things you shouldn’t feed them. Some things are bad just because they contain too much fat or sugars, but other things are completely no-go foods because they could seriously harm them. Nutritional Additives (per kg): Vitamin A 19,000 IU, Vitamin D3 1,900 IU, Vitamin E 110mg, Iron (Ferrous Sulphate Monohydrate): 40mg, Copper (Cupric Sulphate Pentahydrate): 7mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate): 30mg, Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate): 100mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous): 1mg, Selenium (Sodium Selenite): 0.25mg. It’s important that owners feed their hogs a good variety of tastes, textures and smells because that’s what they would be getting out in the wild. Simply feeding them dry cat kibble won’t give them the nutrients or eating experience they need. We have lots of blogs on hedgehogs if you want more tips and ideas. Finally the don’ts. What should hedgehogs not eat? They are wild animals. The concept of treats is a human one, very tied into human emotion. Wild animals do not understand treats, they will eat what they are given. The best way of treating your wild hogs is to feed them safe, nutritionally balanced and appropriate food.

Returns

Milk is another foodstuff traditionally left out for hedgehogs. However, it will do them more harm than good due to their lactose intolerance. What harms hedgehogs? The only thing the hedgehogs need to drink is water. That is so much easier to access anyway, so why complicate things? Whilst information collected from this questionnaire could be very useful, it must be confusing for people, if Hedgehog Street is offering different information regarding feeding hedgehogs, from what many of us have been repeatedly saying on the Forum.