Wild Things Hedgehog Food, 2 KG

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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. Neither are mealworms!! Or peanuts, or biscuits, or cake, or wagon wheels, or any of the other, frankly ridiculous things which people feed wild animals. However, cat and dog food is nutritionally balanced and complete, and will NOT cause skeletal deformities, raging tooth decay, nutritional deficiencies or spine and fur loss – all of which occur with an inappropriate diet. Grapes – grapes can be toxic for hedgehogs and can damage their liver and kidneys. Do not feed your hog grapes under any circumstances

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. Hedgehogs will drink water from natural sources such as puddles, but leaving out a shallow dish of fresh, plain water is the best way to ensure they stay hydrated all year round. What is Hedgehog Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD)?

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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. While hedgehogs are quite adaptable when it comes to their diet, eating both meat and fruits, there are some foods you should avoid putting out for them. 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. So does the child who only wants to eat chocolate… but seriously – rescues are admitting an ever increasing volume of hogs with severe dental disease, even in young hogs. How severe you ask? One rescue had a hog with such severe dental disease, the jawbone had become infected and crumbled. Hogs cannot clean their teeth. Sweet sugary foods cause dental decay in other mammals too. PLEASE do not feed these things. Leafy greens – hedgehogs love veggies like broccoli, cucumber, lettuce and more. You might have to cook some of the tougher veggies to make them easier for hogs to eat. Just make sure you feed them bite-size pieces

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 aim of providing supplemental feeding is not to try and replicate their natural diet – YOU CANT. But you CAN provide a nutritionally balanced food to support their natural diet. Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) is caused by a hedgehog consistently eating foods which are too low in calcium and too high in phosphorus. This can result in the hedgehog’s body leaching the calcium stored in its bones into the bloodstream to try to counterbalance. But this means that their bones then don’t get enough calcium, causing the bones to break or become misshapen. If a hedgehog fills up solely on peanuts, mealworms, oats and sunflower hearts, they won’t have a balanced diet and this can lead to MBD. MBD in hedgehogs is harrowing: it’s a debilitating, excruciatingly painful condition that can lead to death. 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. Hedgehogs are often suspicious of new foods, but if you leave a small handful of Wild Things hedgehog food out each evening, they will soon relish in their new meal. 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.

Please remember that all the research done so far (which to be fair is very limited – attached) on supplementary feeding shows that wild hedgehogs only use it as a supplement. These claims about the CaP ratio are more significant to animals in captivity that are only eating a limited range of things…..’ 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. This year, we have already had two admissions prior to little Gherkin, with metabolic bone disease (confirmed by a veterinary surgeon), both barely able to walk, and in pain. Both of these, like Gherkin, were fed large amounts of mealworms.Hedgehog specific biscuits: Here, we feed our visiting wildies with a mix of two things: Ark Wildlife hedgehog biscuits, and Ark Wildlife hedgehog mix. This doesnt get eaten by the neighbourhood cats, the hedgehogs like it (please bear in mind that it WILL take them a few days to get used to a change in food), and the wild birds finish off any bits leftover. I have no affiliation with Ark wildlife, its simply that our wild hogs will eat it. There are other alternatives available. However, I have confidence that Ark wildlife have done their research and formulated a nutritionally complete and appropriate food – it was originally developed for hedgehog rescue centres and wildlife hospitals. 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. 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. If the lady had not caught him and brought him in, we dread to think of how he would have suffered in the wild with no help 🙁 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.