Hedgehogs will love your garden if you leave one common food outside
Even though winter is over, you can still keep on inviting hedgehogs into your garden by leaving out certain foods that they love.
Spring is here, and it means spending more time outside in the garden. While we put a lot of work into making it a nice place for us, it's also important to make sure it's a welcome place for wildlife too.
Hedgehogs start to emerge from hibernation right about now, and they'll be hungry after months of sleeping. To help them build their strength back up, it can be really helpful to leave out food and water for them. And there's one type of food they absolutely love that'll keep them coming back again and again.
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Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals so they'll be most active at night during this time of the year. Because they have lost so much of their body weight during hibernation, a high-protein meal is a must, as this will help them to regain their strength.
If you spot them during the day, they might appear wobbly or disorientated, so try not to disturb them. Instead, make sure you leave them water to drink and a bowl of cat or dog food to eat.
Those of us with pets at home will probably have some of their food to spare. According to the experts at BBC Gardeners World, meat-based cat or dog food - especially chicken flavoured - is great for hedgehogs.
However, putting a bowl of food out in the garden can come with its dangers. Visiting cats, foxes or badgers are likely to eat the food themselves if they get to it before the hedgehogs do.
A hedgehog house can help to keep other animals and predators at bay, and offers some shelter for the hedgehogs whilst they eat.
You can either buy one from the RSBP website or if you're feeling up to the challenge you can make your own. For something simpler, a feeding station is just as good.
How to make a hedgehog feeding station
According to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, making your own feeding station is simple. Take a plastic or wooden storage box, cutting a 13cm square gap in the one side and placing food underneath it as far away from the entrance as possible.
A large stone or brick on top will help weigh it down and another around 13cm in front of entrance will make it trickier for cats to steal the hedgehogs’ food.
Check on the back for meat being first in the ingredient list and make sure all feeding bowls and areas are kept clean.
As well as food, water should be left out in a shallow bowl for the hedgehogs to drink, and it should be replenished as often as needed. Make sure it's a heavy bowl, made out of a material like terracotta so it won't tip over, and keep it in a shaded spot in the garden.
