Did you know that this tiny mammal has been roaming around Britain for 15 million years? Hard to believe it walked this land with the sabre-toothed tiger… however, it has been brought to near extinction in the last couple of decades and desperately needs our help.
Here are a few things that you can do to help them:-

Check for sleeping hedgehogs before strimming or mowing your grass. Many hogs are killed in this way every year.

Never use slug pellets – if you really have to, however, use organic or wildlife friendly ones.

If you have a garden pond, put rocks or pebbles around the edge to allow hedgehogs to crawl out should they inadvertently fall in.

Plastic rings that connect tin cans together can be a hazard so cut these up and it’s also good practice to crush tin cans as both of these can be lethal to small hedgehogs and small mammals.
 

Allow your garden to become a little messy – even if it’s just a far corner, as too much tidiness will not help protect them nor allow them to forage for food in relative safety. A nettle patch may look unpleasant to us, but it’s a hotbed of life supporting flora and adequate cover for a hedgehog.
 
Never put out bread and milk as this can cause diarrhoea. Instead leave out meat-based dog or cat food or even better, dried mealworms, sunflower hearts or Haith’s Hedgehog Food. They will also need plenty of drinking water.

As summer becomes autumn, leave piles of logs and fallen leaves for hedgehogs to nest in or treat them to a home of their own – for example our hedgehog box, which is available by clicking here.





Follow these simple guidelines and together we can make a difference for our humble friend the hedgehog.