How To Help Hedgehogs In Your Garden

There seems to be a number of reasons why hedgehogs are in decline. One main reason is loss of habitat. Their wild hedgerows are in decline as we dig them up to make houses or a bit more room to grow crops. 

Pesticides and slug pellets kill the food they need to eat and that in turn makes hedgehogs very ill or they die. Lack of food generally is an issue for hedgehogs as many do not reach the weight they need to be before hibernation and then they die in hibernation or come out of hibernation in the depth s of winter hungry and then cannot survive.

Hedgehogs are also killed by traffic on our roads. Where once was a field is now a road and they travel several miles each night to get to other food and territory and to find a mate and get killed in the process. If a mother is killed her babies -hoglets- will not survive with out human help. 

Hedgehogs have been around since the time of the Woolly Mammoth so I think its only right that because of our activities they are declining we should give them a helping hand now. 

Yes looking after hedgehogs in your garden gives you licence to be untidy :) You can easily make or buy a home for a hedgehog or a Hogitat. 

Now you dont have to be untidy everywhere but do set aside at least one area where you leave old cuttings, logs, fallen leaves, grass clippings and twigs.

Just push them into a pile and leave them in a corner you don't need to go into much. Your hedgehogs will love this habitat you have created for them. 

If you prefer you can buy a ready made Hedgehog home such as the one in the introduction picture. These are easy to just place in your garden and do look neater. Then all you need to do is provide some twigs, grass clippings etc and place them in the hogitat and nearby so the hog can make its own home there.  

Place any hogitat near to a hedge with cover nearby.

When gardening we can help hedgehogs. Many hedgehogs are injured each year from gardening accidents. It is important to be careful especially when using any power tools. 

So before you start strimming the edges of your lawn just walk around and check there are no hedgehogs hiding in the longer grass.

Likewise if your grass is long before you start mowing check for any of the hedgehogs.

If you have a compost heap you may well find that hedgehogs like to hide in it even hibernate or bring their young up in it. So if you turn your compost heap with a spike or fork please check for hedgehogs first. Too many hedgehogs have been impaled with a fork by gardeners not meaning to hurt them. 

Please do not use slug pellets and insectisides either. They are bad for hedgehogs

If you can, make a hedge around the garden, it doesn't have to be huge but they will love it.

If you have fences make a hedgehog sized hole in the fence in a few places so that they can move form you r garden to another garden. Hedgehogs need about five gardens to find enough food so if you can, ask your neighbours to do the same. 

A common misconception is to feed wild hedgehogs bread and milk, please NEVER do do this. Bread and milk are dangerous to hedgehogs. At best it makes them seriously ill, at worse it can kill them. 

A much better alternative is plain water in a dish.

For food they love meal worms you can buy from the pet shop or internet and cat food. Avoid fish and beef and serve up chicken cat food. 

To prevent tall the neighbourhood cats being attracted and eating the food, place the cat food in an old upturned dogbed or plastic box with a hole cut out. Place the catfood towards the end of the box so that no cats can get it out with their paws. Place heavy bricks on the top so dogs and cats or foxes can't upturn the box

I am a gardener too ,so clearly I do not want my precious plants eaten by slugs. However NEVER use slug pellets in your garden.

Slug pellets are deadly to so much wildlife especially hedgehogs and birds.

To me its more important to have healthy living hedgehogs and birds than plants. So I just plant things that slugs don't like much!

Also an added bonus is that if you do have hedgehogs they will eat any slugs that come into you r garden so give it time and you have natural pest control anyway .