Hungry hedgehogs can’t hibernate

They should all be fast asleep and dreaming of Spring but we are still getting wide awake hedgehogs brought in every week.  It could be to do with climate change but we feel that it’s more probably due to lack of food.  Our recent arrivals are all thin and hungry.  Is it because they get trapped in gardens and can’t do their nocturnal roaming to find a meal?  Please leave some gaps in your garden fence for hedgehogs to get out.  It’s lovely to see them and to know they’re making their home with you but hedgies will travel a long way at night in search of food and will be miserable and hungry if they can’t go walkabout.

You can provide supper for them – they like sunflower seeds, meal worms, a bit of cat food, peanuts, bought in hedgehog food but not milk which they can’t tolerate.  Put a shallow dish of water out too, it’s surprising how thirsty they are when they arrive.  If you see a hedgehog sitting about outside during the day it will be because she is weak from lack of food or not very well.

The little lady shown above is doing well, we’ve checked her for ticks.  If you find any (grey pebbly looking blobs) they need to be removed as soon as possible.  They are blood suckers and can make hedgie anaemic and unwell.   The vet will remove them or you can buy a tick remover at most pet stores.  If you are removing ticks you need to have a pot of vaseline to hand.  Ticks are good jumpers and almost impossible to destroy unless you burn them.  Immobilizing them is best, they can jump on to humans and give you a nasty bite (with longstanding medical complications) too.

Food, warmth and then a hay box is next for our rescued hedgie.  They come out each day to feed but don’t usually attempt hibernation at this time of the year.  The days are lengthening and soon (on a warm day in Spring) it will be time for them to be released back in to the wild.