What to feed hoglets in November

[Clifftop Woodpile]

We live on a North Cornwall clifftop , the South West long distance coast path runs through it, we have a very large stock fenced garden, two thirds of it wild and we don’t use chemicals. An adult with two small young recently started to visit our kitchen patio every night and eat whiskas chicken cat food we put out for them. We think they are living under a formium bush amongst some old wooden railway sleepers, directly in front of our house. I’ve removed the plastic rentokil rat poison bait box from the formium. Is chicken whiskas the right food for hedgehogs and why aren’t they hibernating.?

[stef]

Any cat or small dog food is fine.

Hedgehogs don’t need to hibernate and if this is a mum with babies it’s unlikely she will too early. It’s also been quite warm
It’s worth monitoring though in case the mum hibernates and leaves the youngsters. They may need taking into care if they cannot cope. If you get a chance to weigh them then the minimum weight needed to survive hibernation is 450g. But really the best thing you can do is continue to put out food and water

[daffydill]

Hi: I also live in N Cornwall but a coastal village. Last year the food I put out for the visiting hedgehogs (I saw 2 of them) was eaten until around Xmas day.
They seemed to disappear then (hibernating?) but I kept putting a dish of hedgehog dry biscuits out every evening under cover for a few months though it remained uneaten. Towards the end of Feb/early March crumbs were being left in the dishes and I took this as a sign they’d come out for a snack or were up and about again.
I’ve noticed cats aren’t keen on dry hedgie biscuits.
Regarding the rat boxes if they are put on high walls or shed roofs it’s possible the rats can get to them but hedgehogs can’t.
Hope this helps.

[Author]

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