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Cubert Wildlife
How many times have you seen a hedgehog? If you’re over 50, chances are you will have seen a few of them when you were a child.
Nowadays however, unless you volunteer at a hedgehog rescue, it’s likely that you’ve never seen one in your garden.
Children growing up today will have to be extremely lucky to see one and that’s very sad.
So, why are these cute prickly mammals disappearing from our gardens and our countryside?
Our rural environment is very different today to what it was in the 1960s. With the massive expansion of factory farming techniques with more intensive agriculture, field sizes have increased and hedgerows have been ripped out, monoculture crops have become prevalent which discourage insect life and the explosion of agro chemical usage has made much of the countryside, at best uninviting and in many cases deadly for our small prickly pals and much of our native wildlife. Insects are disappearing which affects not only hedgehogs but other small mammals and wild birds.
Add to this the development of land for building homes and roads, loss of woodlands and permanent grassland which all contribute to a massive loss and severe fragmentation of habitat and it is not difficult to see why hedgehog numbers have declined. What is more difficult to understand though, is how this has been allowed to happen on such a massive scale.
During the 1950s, hedgehog numbers are estimated to have been 30 million or more. By 1995 the estimated number had dropped to about 1.1 million in England. That is a staggering drop. Hedgehog numbers have continued to fall, particularly in the countryside.
Researching into the number of hedgehogs sighted in Cornwall, Cornwall Wildlife Trust has launched Operation Hedgehog working with Cornwall Mammal Group, Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue and the University of Exeter
Ideally, nature should be left alone or managed thoughtfully with a very light touch approach but our destruction and damage to our environment has made it necessary for remedial, positive action to be taken.
Hedgehogs need our help. We have damaged their natural environment to the point that unless we are proactive in encouraging them and offering them food and protection, they will disappear completely in just a few years.
Hedgehogs roam every night in search of food. In towns, cities and villages, they need to be able to access gardens. Gardens with walls or fences are inaccessible for hedgehogs, preventing them from roaming and securing the food they need to survive. You may have a beautiful wildlife garden, full of hedgehog friendly bushes where they can curl up to dream the day away but unless your local hedgehogs can access your garden they will not be able to benefit from it.
To encourage hedgehogs into your garden here are a few important tips:
Firstly and most importantly, you need to provide them with one or more access/exit points. If you and your neighbours do this you will create Hedgehog Highways, where hedgehogs can roam from garden to garden.
Create an access point in your garden such as a small hole in your fence or wall. You can use an old CD as a template as they are about 13cm (5.1 in) by 13cm (5.1in)
Alternatively, remove a brick from the base of your garden wall or dig a tunnel underneath your fence, wall or gate for your visiting hedgehogs to enter and exit your garden.
Once you have invited hedgehogs into your garden, the next thing you must do, as a good host, is to offer them some refreshment.
A shallow bowl or plate containing tinned dog or cat food is their favourite. Offer meaty flavours only as fishy flavours can be a bit hit and miss and your hedgehog might not like them. Place the bowl/plate outside very night and remove any uneaten food during the daytime. You do not want slugs and snails roaming over the hedgehog’s dinner. Not that slugs and snails should be unwelcome in your garden so please don’t poison them with slug pellets. To accompany the hedgehog’s meal you should also offer a shallow bowl of fresh water every evening.
If you want to create a more substantial feeding area, you can go the whole hog by creating an enclosed feeding station.
Here’s how you can create a simple feeding station:
Obtain a sturdy wooden or plastic box, which has a removable lid. You can often find plastic storage boxes available cheaply in your local supermarket
Cut a hedgehog-sized entrance hole in one side of your box. About 5.1 in x 5.1 in (13 cm x 13 cm) will be perfect
Smooth down any sharp edges or cover with tape. to create a hedgehog friendly doorway which they can walk through without hurting themselves
Line the container with newspaper
Identify a quiet area in your garden where you can safely stand your feeding station (Hedgehog Cafe)
When evening comes, place a shallow dish of meaty dog or cat food into the container, replace the lid and use something heavy like a brick to keep the lid from being displaced
Place a shallow bowl of water nearby or inside the cafe if you prefer.
Contrary to popular belief, bread and milk is not a suitable meal for a hedgehog. They are lactose intolerant so they must never be given dairy products. It will give them a severe digestive upset and kill them. Nor are they particularly fond of slugs, which they only eat if better, more nourishing food is not available. Slugs are often infected with parasites and carry the intermediate stage of lungworm which is life threatening to hedgehogs, causing pneumonia and rapid death. Rescued hedgehogs are often found with serious burdens of lungworm which will cause the hedgehog to become ill and die.
Here are just a few more items you should NOT FEED to hedgehogs - sunflower seeds, peanuts, sultanas and mealworms.
Although hedgehogs do enjoy a mealworm they are like sweets to a hedgehog and they will stuff themselves so full with them that they will have no room or appetite for proper, nourishing food. The mealworms cause metabolic bone disease - the hedgehog’s skeleton loses all its calcium due to the phosphate content of the mealworms, leaving the hedgehog very ill and unable to walk which will usually result in death. A hedgehog who cannot walk is unable to survive in the wild as it cannot feed itself.
Making your Garden a Safe Place for Hedgehogs
Now, let’s think about the safety of your garden and how you can make it safe and friendly for hedgehogs:
Please do not use netting in your garden. Hedgehogs can get stuck in netting and become injured. If you must use it, roll it up above hedgehog height so they cannot get entangled in it.
Plant bushes, shrubs, a hedge, something that gives your visiting hedgehog somewhere to hide and curl up during the daytime. Leave parts of your garden wild and untidy. Not only will this help the hedgehogs to have somewhere to hide but it will also encourage insects who may become a tasty snack for your visiting hedgehog.
If you want to go the whole hog again you can provide your hedgehog with its own home but please understand that the hedgehog will choose whether to take up residence in your Hedgehog House. They roam so don’t be disappointed if they don’t take up permanent residence. Your hog may stay over sometimes or you may have several hogs trying to occupy the residence.
Hedgehog houses really come into their own during autumn and winter when hogs may choose to hibernate in them. Hedgehogs should ideally be around 600g in November in mid and northern parts of the UK so they can hibernate but they can hibernate safely at 500g. In Cornwall the milder temperatures mean that hedgehogs tend to hibernate later (the last couple of years not until January or February) so they have more time than those in other areas of the UK to gain weight for hibernation.
If you have a pond in your garden please ensure that you have a shallow ramp in it so hedgehogs can walk out if they fall in. Hedgehogs are great swimmers but they cannot climb cliffs, so don’t forget the escape ramp.
Don’t use a strimmer in your garden unless you can see exactly what you’re strimming and be careful if using other garden machinery such as a lawn mower if you’re pushing it under hedges and bushes.
A garden spade or fork is also dangerous if you’re using it in an area where hedgehogs may be sleeping or hibernating.
Avoid using slug pellets and other garden chemicals.
Avoid building bonfires. If you have to have a bonfire please check it for hedgehogs and other wildlife before setting light to it.
Recognising Normal Hedgehog Behaviour and Deciding when to Intervene
This applies to hedgehogs in your garden or any hedgehogs you see in towns, cities and the countryside.
Normal Hedgehog Behaviour
If you hear several hedgehogs huffing, snuffling and making a lot of noise in your garden please don’t be concerned. This can either be mating behaviour or a hedgehog territorial dispute.
Please leave them in peace and at some point in the near future you may be lucky enough to see hoglets in your garden.
Time to Ask for Advice
If you notice a hedgehog out during the day please contact your local hedgehog rescue immediately. They will advise you if you need to take the hedgehog to them.
A hedgehog active during the day is most likely a sick hedgehog. Do not feed. Water can be offered as long as it is in a shallow dish.
Pick up the hedgehog by wearing gloves, using a towel over its spines or placing your hand underneath it on its tummy. If it curls into a ball use the gloves or towel. Use a deep cardboard box or other suitable container which it cannot escape from and place a towel in the bottom of the box.
If you have a water bottle that you can fill with warm water, wrap this in a towel and place in the box. Always make sure that there is enough space in the box for the hedgehog to stand away from the heat if it wants to. Place the box in a safe, quiet, away from children and pets and get to the rescue as soon as possible.
Be Aware
Have you spotted a hedgehog who is behaving strangely such as wobbling or finding it difficult to walk?
Have you come across a baby hedgehog out on its own? Please look around to see if there are other hoglets in the area. If a parent hedgehog gets killed or injured then their hoglets will have no one to look after them and they will die of starvation or be preyed on by wild or domestic animals or birds.
If it’s autumn and you notice a hedgehog who looks quite small (under 450g) this hedgehog will be too small to survive hibernation.
In any of these situations please contact your local rescue immediately for advice.
Time for Immediate Action
If a hedgehog appears injured, making distressed squeaking sounds, lifeless or you can see what look like tiny grains of rice on its body or face (fly eggs) you must phone your rescue immediately or take the hedgehog immediately to your local rescue or your local vet.
Any delay is likely to result in the death of the hedgehog so please act promptly.
Hedgehogs in Cornwall
If you live in Cornwall, Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue, at Cubert, near Newquay, is your port of call for sick and injured hedgehogs. If you cannot get to them with a distressed hedgehog they may have a volunteer driver in your area who will collect the hedgehog from you and transport it to the hogspital. In the first instance please phone them for their advice and describe the situation of the hedgehog you have found.
To illustrate the sheer size of the problem hedgehogs are facing, Prickles and Paws alone admitted 726 poorly hedgehogs in 2019 and already in just the first two months of 2020, 39 hedgehogs have needed to be taken into their hospital, this at a time when hedgehogs are least active as most of them are hibernating.
All the staff are volunteers and give their time for free but the specialist equipment needed for nursing hedgehogs and rehabilitating them, not to mention the huge amount of disposable items needed for keeping them clean and disease free and of course the food they need costs a considerable amount of money.
Feeding needs are different depending on whether the hedgehog is an adult or a youngster. Hoglets (baby hedgehogs) have to be weened from hoglet food to puppy mousse to dried and wet adult foods. A tray of twelve cans of puppy mousse alone costs around £25 and in hoglet season with lots of hungry mouths to feed a tray will not last for very long.
Please donate to hedgehog rescues if you can. It enables them to help more hedgehogs. With many rescues seeing over 700 hedgehogs a year needing their help, your donation is very important and allows them to continue their important work. Many of them have a wish list of items they need to nurse sick hedgehogs so you can send them a gift.
Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue, Cubert, Newquay Cornwall
Telephone: 01637 831 299
Mobile: 07926 576164
Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue
Twitter: @Prickles_Paws
Facebook: @pricklesandpaws
All images appear courtesy of Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue, Cornwall.
Hedgehogs do not come out in the daylight in the wild. These images show hedgehogs in care and those on release day being released back into the wild.
Below, we have listed hedgehog rescues throughout the UK and other national organisations who offer information on hedgehogs and how to help them.
Hedgehog Rescues in the UK
Bedfordshire
Sandy Hedgehog Rescue Sandy Telephone: 07784 428282
Berkshire
Hedgehog Bottom Thatcham, Telephone: 01635 826120
Buckinghamshire
Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital Aston Rd, Haddenham HP17 8AF Telephone: 01844 292292
Cambridge
Cambridge Hedgehogs
@CamHedgehogs Not currently offering a rescue/rehab
Cheshire
Withington Hedgehog Care Trust
Manchester Mobile: 07597 510460 Facebook @withingtonhedgehog
Cornwall
Prickles and Paws Hedgehog Rescue
Cubert, Newquay, Telephone: 01637 831 299 Mobile: 07926 576164
Cumbria
Furness Hedgehog Rescue, Barrow, 01229 464829
Dalton Hedgehog Hospital
Telephone: 01229 464829
Derbyshire
Derby Hedgehog Rescue, Derby Telephone: 01332 381315
Dorset
Hamworthy Hedgehog Rescue
Poole, Dorset Mobile: 07587 925 476
Durham
Bernie's Hedgehog Rescue
Durham. Mobile: 07940 798975
Essex
Hedgehog Haven
Frinton. Mobile: 07709 767511
Gloucestershire
Help a Hedgehog Hospital
Brimscombe. 24 hr emergency helpline Mobile: 07870 378 207 Telephone: 01453 823 871 Evenings and weekends: 01453 886 424 or Mobile: 07867 974 525
Wild Hogs Hedgehogs Rescue
@WildHogsRescue
Greater Manchester
Withington Hedgehog Care Trust, Manchester, Mobile: 07597 510460
Hampshire
Hedgehog Cabin
Hartley Wintney, Telephone: 01252 845065 @HedgehogCabin
Herefordshire
Hollycroft Hedgehogs , Tillington, Telephone: 01432 769375
Hertfordshire
Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary
Harpenden. Mobile: 07999 573513
Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity Hedgehog Hospital
SWCC Hedgehogs @SWCCHedgehogs Shepreth, Herts.
Kent
Folly Wildlife rescue, Tunbridge Wells,Telephone: 01892 543213
Lancashire
Preston Hedgehog Rescue, Preston, Telephone: 01772 700536
Woodlands Animal Sanctuary
Woodlands Farm, Sandy Lane, Holmeswood, Lancashire L40 1UE Telephone: 01704 823293
Leicestershire
Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital, Kibworth Beauchamp, Mobile: 07951 285366
Lincolnshire
Hedgehog Care, Louth, Telephone: 01507 450221
London
Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service, Enfield, Mobile: 07970 141282
Barnes Hedgehogs
Barnes, London. @BarnesHedgehogs
Merseyside
Freshfield Animal Rescue, Liverpool, Telephone: 0151 931 1604
Nottinghamshire
Brinsley Animal Rescue
69 Hobsic Close, Brinsley, Nottingham
NG16 5AX Telephone: 0845 458 2813
Norfolk
Norwich Hedgehog Rescue, Norwich, Mobile: 07468 622828
Northumberland
Northumbrian Hedgehog Rescue Trust, Longframlington, Telephone: 01665 570911
Northamptonshire
Animals In Need, Little Irchester, Telephone: 01933 278080
Little Wiggly Snouts Hedgehog Rescue
Rushden Northamptonshire. Twitter: @WigglySnouts
Oxfordshire
West Oxford Animal Rescue, Oxford, Telephone: 01865 438128
Shropshire
Cuan Wildlife Rescue, Much Wenlock, Telephone: 01952 728070
Somerset
Prickles, Cheddar, Mobile: 07806 744 772
Staffordshire
Garden Bird and Hedgehog Rescue, Stafford, Telephone: 01785 747683
Suffolk
Suffolk Hedgehog Hospital, Newmarket, Telephone: 01638 500295
Poppy’s Creche Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation www.poppyscreche.org
2 Vine Cottage, Forward Green, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 5HZ
Telephone: 01449 711724 Twitter: @Poppyshedgehogs
Surrey
Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue, Windlesham, Telephone: 01344 623106
Sussex (East)
East Sussex WRAS, Whitesmith, Mobile: 07815 078234
Sussex (West)
Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital, Sidlesham, Telephone: 01243 641 672
Tyne and Wear
St. Francis Animal Rescue, South Shields, Telephone: 0191 456 9613
Warwickshire
Warwickshire Hedgehog Rescue
Welford on Avon, Telephone: 01386 882 288
Hedgehog Friendly Town Stratford upon Avon
Twitter: @Hedgehogfriend3 Facebook: @hedgehogfriendlytown
West Midlands
West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue,
Walsall. Telephone: 01922 419532 Mobile: 07837 409533
Wiltshire
Oak & Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre
Cricklade, Telephone: 01793 751412
Worcestershire
Willows Hedgehog Rescue
Bromsgrove. Mobile: 07518 354408
Yorkshire (East)
Holderness Hedgehog Hospital
Elstronwick. Mobile: 07563 917914
Yorkshire (North)
Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, Whitby, Mobile: 07342 173 724
Wildlife Orphanage & Hedgehog Hospital
Low Mill, York Road, Barlby North Yorkshire. YO8 5JP
Twitter: @WildlifeOrphan1 Mobile: 07711 883 072
Yorkshire (South)
South Yorkshire Animal Rescue, Sheffield, Telephone: 0114 234 9656
Yorkshire (West)
Shelley Hedgehogs Hawthorne Way, Huddersfield, HD8 8PX Mobile: 07849 104602
Email: ShelleyHedgehogs@btinternet.com
Oggles Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, Dewsbury, Mobile: 07954 138853
Little Silver Hedgehog
York. Twitter @littlesilverhog
Northern Ireland
Hedgehog Rescue
Derry, Mobile: 07516 255 138
Scotland
Forth Hedgehog Hospital
Fife, Mobile: 07815 914 912
Wales
West Wales Hedgehog Rescue, Ceredigion, Mobile: 07527 524300
Huffing Hedgehogs
Wales. Twitter: @HuffingHedgehog
Hedgehog Torfaen
South Wales. Twiiter: @HedgehogTorfaen
Helen Hedgehogs
South East Wales. Twitter: @helen_collis
Resources and Projects to Help Hedgehogs
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Hedgehog Street
People’s Trust For Endangered Species
Amazing Grace @HedgehogGrace
SW15 Hedgehogs
Twitter: @SW15Hedgehogs
Mrs Prickles
Twitter @Prickles54 Aylesbury Vale.
The Wildlife Trusts
Twitter: @WildlifeTrusts
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