Sadly, the numbers of hedgehogs have dwindled over the years. This decline over almost a decade is mainly because of the fragmentation of their habitats and difficulty in finding food.
However, small steps on our part will surely make the life of these tiny creatures significantly easy. There are a number of things we can do to help these gardeners' friends - if you'd like to find out more about thing you can do to help your local hedgehogs, you're in the right place!
Helping hedgehogs in your garden
1) Food and water
The easiest thing we can do to help protect hedgehogs is to provide them with food and clean drinking water. These essential resources are scarce mainly in the autumn and early spring.
Spikes Hedgehog Food
Hedgehogs usually hibernate during the winter. Before hibernating they need to prepare their body reserves in order to last during the hibernation process. They need to feed well and to weigh at least 600 grams to ensure that they have sufficient fat stores to enter hibernation and last right through it.
2) Hedgehog habitat
Another way of helping hedgehogs is to provide a safe haven for them - a hedgehog house! With these safe retreats the hedgehogs can rest in these houses during the daytime and hibernate in safety.
Hedgehog Basket
When hedgehogs emerge in the spring after hibernation they loose a considerable amount of their body weight. They are at significant risk during this time especially if the spring is cold and wet and there is again a scarcity of natural food around. So yet again providing supplementary food becomes necessary during these times.
3) Create a hedgehog-safe environment
We can also protect our hedgehogs by ensuring that our gardens that are hedgehog friendly. Making the garden hedgehog friendly could involve small and simple things, like covering the drains holes or even the swimming pools during the night time. You can also place bricks or wooden planks in the ponds to give the hedgehogs an easy way out as most love a dip in the cool water.
Hedgehogs feed on slugs, snails, insects and worms. Making piles of old wood will attract these insects and provide food to the hedgehogs. These small steps on our part will definitely go a long way in making sure that the hedgehogs are well protected during the harsh times!
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If you have any further questions or would like more advice on steps you can take to help protect hedgehogs, feel free to reach out and contact us today. One of our professional team members will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, and help prepare you to do you bit to support and protect your local wildlife!
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