Helping our hedgehogs

Hedgehogs are on the Red List so need our help, says Val

- Val Bourne

OUR climate is so much warmer than it used to be that it’s possible you’ll see a hedgehog still active in November if there’s food around. At this time of year hedgehogs consume a lot of slugs and they are estimated to be 23% of the hedgehog’s diet. Their favourite summer foods, in order of popularity, are beetles, earwigs, caterpillars, millipedes and worms, but they aren’t keen on snails because they’re hard to crunch up.

It seems that these nocturnal carnivores enjoy a varied diet, but it doesn’t include bread and milk because hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. They eat it readily, but it makes them ill. The best food supplement is protein-rich cat food and I prefer to give them the sort with gravy, rather than dried food, but either will do. You will need to devise a way of protecting the food from other hungry creatures, and a new book, called The Hedgehog Book (see right), uses a plastic storage box, fixed to the ground, with a hedgehog-sized hole cut into one side.