How to attract Hedgehogs into your Garden | Hedgehog's Hollow

[@HedgehogsHollow]

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[@suekindon8948]

Thank you love your videos I now have 2 houses in my tiny garden as well as 2 feeding stations. I now have 4/5 hedgehogs visiting garden every night thank you so much

[@jaxson6133]

Great advice, my garden is slug/snail free since I have homed a hedgehog, slugs and snails have no chance, Gardner's best friend 🦔

[@TechGuyNelly]

the music is bouncing in your street lol

[@annsmith4739]

I live on a modern estate ,I couldn’t believe when I first saw one ,that was tree years ago ,so now iv got three hedgehog boxes ,they hibernate this winter ,they come in every night ,I love to think they come in ,leave plenty of water ,food ,a way to get in ,an iv only got potted plants no lawn ,so I’m very surprised,I’m very lucky

[@HedgehogsHollow]

That's awesome, Ann - it's brilliant that you have what sounds like a regular community of visiting hedgehogs.

[@mrandrews3616]

A hedgehog has moved into my garden. He's living in a space between a large grit bin and the house wall where a lot of leaves have gathered over the years. We've been leaving out dogfood and water for him for about a week now and he is eating and drinking it. We're thinking about getting a decent hedgehog house for him or any other potential visitors to the garden. I did spot him for the first time outside at 13:00 last week and we had been hearing noises for a few days before that so we think he's just moved in. We're really excited to have him.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

That's excellent. A proper hedgehog house would be a fantastic option, and I am sure that you will find that he takes up the option of a proper residence. That also allows you the reassurance that you won't inadvertently hurt the hedgehog when doing something in the garden or behind the bin.

[@andymurph3394]

Great information i had one hedgehog that start coming the end of last summer. The last few weeks there has been four i have 3 feed stations i feed them chicken flavour cat food nuts I am go to invest on hedgehog House. They are such a joy to watch. I am lucky i have a big front and back garden .

[@patbosher8963]

I followed your 5 tips. It took some time but a young hog was in my garden eating bird food. He went in the hoghouse I purchased. Now he's settled there. Feed him dry cat food. I have a pond it's coverd with netting . A stream and a shallow pond which he cam get out of easy. Love him / her

[@ag3ntorange164]

Have just set up a night cam in my garden a few weeks ago and discovered I had Hedgehogs visiting. By finding out more about them from You Tubers like yourself, we have now set up a feeding station and plan to get these guys nice and fat for the winter. We were horrified to discover they were endangered now, and making a difference is now our mission. The Hedgehogs themselves are very much enjoying their nightly dining visits. They reward us with hilarious footage of their exploits as payment for the food! They are absolutely fascinating creatures, and impossibly cute. I would recommend everyone does this. It's a win win for Hedgehog and the other endangered species - the Human.

[@JackieO-k5t]

I've recently discovered hedgehogs drinking from my pond and want to get some cam equipment but not sure what to get - can you recommend anything please?

[@chloeoliver2314]

Thanks so much I have a hedgehog ( I think only one) in my backyard and I don’t know what to do so you have really helped me

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Brilliant - I'm glad you found the information useful - hopefully you find you have more than just the one hedgehog visitor

[@hansmarheim7620]

Great video. I put out surplus dry cat food for the hedgehogs every summer + water several places in my garden. Once you start to do this it is very important you keep on doing it until late october and even november if the weather is frost free. I let a part of my garden grow wild. For my Cats, hedgehogs and insects. In the bright Danish summer nights i have seen hedgehogs coming to my garden from all over the village. One time i counted more than ten hedgehogs on each side of my house. It is very nice.

[@sharrongray1837]

Thank you for sharing with us all 👍🏻

[@meryblacksea6868]

Awesome video!! Greetings from a hedgehog rescue in North Germany.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Thank you, Mery, for your very kind words - and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I hope you will enjoy future videos too

[@patriciaashton4714]

Very helpful, thank you. I will be putting some of your tips into practice, ASAP.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Glad it was helpful!

[@coleensere]

Hi Mike 👋 may i ask what shrubs you use around your hedgehog area as ive recently had a hedgehog visit our garden in the evening and since made a safe area for the hedgehog at the bottom of our garden with a house & a feeding station with plenty of water but we only have mainly woodland plants such as ferns, acers and hostas and a trunk of a dead tree fern but would like to put a scrub or 2 with the plants we have. Loving your channel great advice for anyone who wants to help our beautiful visitors & hopefully with us humans making a hedgehog highway we can keep them from extinction which is devastating to think of please keep your channel going as we just love watching your friendly well loved hogs take care.

[@julieharding2357]

We have a 'neat' garden, consisting of lawn, gravel and plants in pots. However, we have about 10 metres x 0.5 metre strip of chipped tree bark at the base of our boundary fence. This is an incredibly good medium for invertebrates such as springtails, woodlice, centipedes, worms and slugs. Although in a housing estate, we regularly get up to three different hedgehogs a night passing through and foraging- usually through the bark....... I mention this, because it is a simple alternative to creating a 'wild patch' if you have a small garden.☺

[@Lotsielots]

You could put a small pile of logs there to increase invertebrate numbers. And leave a shallow heavy dish of water out.

[@CraBundy]

beautiful video, thinking of make this idea hedgehouse, surrounded by fields see hedgehogs all the time here

[@chocpryor1678]

I in Edinburgh and for the first time I have a one living under the hut. We just brought a house for it to live in over the winter hopefully it stay in my garden ...

[@victoriabartak5374]

Thank you😊

[@irenaathena7181]

I just discovered that I have two chubby little hedgehogs living in my garden. It's pretty wild, more of an overgrown orchard really. I leave food and water out for around 10 stray cats, and I popped out late, around midnight and two hedgehogs were feasting on the dry food. They must be regular diners because the cats were not phased at all. I want to provide them with a house, but noticed they are hiding under a bottom shelf in a storage room I leave open for the cats. I live in Greece so it is hot, not sure when they will hibernate. I have a compost bin, beside a thick hedge of Bougainvillea, so Im thinking of placing it there. Or, should I place it where they are hanging out? in the storage room?

[@raymondgimay4642]

Hi how much junior cat kibble is safe to leave out at night for a little hedgehog calling to eat since the past week. First time having one visit the garden. don't want to underfeed or overfeed just a safe quantity for good health. Thank you for your reply Patricia

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Hello, There's actually no "right amount" at this time of the year there will be other food sources in the garden. But if you leave a handful out, I am sure you will find most of it being eaten. Hedgehogs do eat a lot, and often - they will continue to eat through the night, so it keeps them going through multiple sittings. A handful, perhaps in a small cat or dog feeding bowl will be great for them and then gauge how much remains, if any

[@Lotsielots]

It's very dry now, so many hedgehogs can't dig in the hard dry ground and have less invertebrates around to eat. So leaving out more food every night until it starts raining again regularly would be very good. Also leaving out water constantly is key. Hedgehogs are starving right now in the drought in England.

[@patriciagimay9195]

@@Lotsielots Thanking you for answering and explaining.I leave out their food and water faithfully everynight now .Bless them all

[@patriciagimay9195]

@@HedgehogsHollow Thank you for your reply. I do that now and Will continue every night with water and dry cat food

[@pot_noodle_power8170]

My garden is just grass, no shrubs, flowers, trees nothing. What could I add to make it more friendly

[@michelleedwards634]

Great video Mike! We have the access, a house (though we think the main hedgehog we see has set up home under the shed) and we give food and water. We also don't use any chemicals. Not much space for an untidy corner but will have a think on how we might provide that. Regarding food - sometimes we've seen 2 hedgehogs and one in particular spent a long time under our bird feeders, where there are dropped seeds/seed husks. Do you know if hedgehogs like to eat bird seed (eg sunflower hearts)? Is that ok for them? Or maybe the seed waste attracts wee critters and the hedgehog was targeting those?

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Hi Michelle, So great to hear that you have two regular visitors. With regard sunflower hearts, these along with meal worms and peanuts can be harmful to hedgehogs. SO I wouldn't advise specifically leaving them for the hedgehogs, but I understand how messy birds can be and it's not possible to keep the ground free of extras and wastage. I suspect there is an element of the hedgehogs being attracted to other insects around the ground. If you are leaving them food regularly, they will most likely enjoy that, but supplement with other sources around the garden; so I think you ought to be fine with what you've described so far. I will do a video in the near future about some do's and dont's and highlight some of the foods that may be harmful to hedgehogs

[@michelleedwards634]

@@HedgehogsHollow thanks for the reply Mike. We knew not to give too many meal worms so I only put a few out occasionally in the eve for hedgey (I put out in the morning for the birds, as they eat them all up through the day). But good to know seeds/nuts not great either. Look forward to your future video on food do's and don'ts 👍🏿

[@runforthehills707]

I'm moving to a new housing development which is surrounded by countryside. We want to make the garden hedgehog friendly but realise this may take some time as plants will need to get established. Shall I wait or get started straight away? Am encouraged that hedgehogs wander for miles at night so maybe I stand a chance of getting hedgehogs in my garden ?? Craig

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

I beg to differ about slug numbers increasing if you don't use slug pellets. If you DO attract hedgehogs to your garden, *they* will do a far better job of killing slugs than pellets ever will - an adult hedgehog can eat 200 slugs in a week !

[@BetrayedAndAmused]

Can I just add that, food-wise, dried kitten food is best (a type with meat as the first ingredient). It’s much cheaper than “hedgehog food” and is regulated, whereas wild animal food is not. Many people also still feed their hedgehogs mealworms which is VERY bad and can kill them. Anyone reading this, please do not provide mealworms.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Couldn't agree more with the sentiment about meal worms and just how harmful and dangerous they are for hedgehogs. And yes, kitten biscuits are a quick and economic food to provide hedgehogs

[@robertcircleone]

Is lonicera nitida a good hedge for hedgehogs?

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Yes, I believe it absolutely could be good for hedgehogs. I have some small box plants, which are not exactly the same I understand, but even so the box hedge is enjoyed by the hedgehogs. I imagine lonicera nitida would be perfect for them.

[@bobtbtownsend]

Don't hedgehogs eat slugs? If so they may compensate for ditching the pellets.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Hedgehogs will only eat slugs if there is genuinely very little else available for them. Slugs are by no means their preferred food source, and they would far rather look for other insects, bugs and worms to eat before resorting to slugs. Slugs can also be harmful to hedgehogs as they carry pests like lungworm, so though they may rarely eat them, it's by no means as common as we might think or read about.

[@anne9576]

It’s the end of October and I’ve got a little hedgehog visiting every night should it not be sleeping now ?

[@abeerkhan4702]

Hi, how do I know if I have a visiting hedgehog in my garden. How can I attract any that are in the area.

[@graylingsandseatrouts9940]

Thank you for the great tips! I have a lot of birds in my garden who effectively eat up anything eatable I put there. Do you have any suggestion how do I protect the hedgehog food from birds?

[@HedgehogsHollow]

That is brilliant that you have birds in your garden too. You could put the hedgehog food out later in the evening so that the birds have perhaps cleared off for the day and there's less competition for the hedgehogs, or try to put the hedgehog food in a feeding station with a tunnel to specifically restrict access to the food

[@AnnJordan-i2t]

Found 2 hedgehogs sharing the hog house

[@patriciawilson-le7mq]

Love your videos. I have at least 5 in my garden. I live in postcode PH4 1PW.

[@leslieorosz6634]

We have had hedgehog in our garden for about 6yaers we have seen many hogs over the years one year three hogs is year just the one hog which he comes to the back door when he eats cat I live in Wales uk

[@nattybking]

We have a lot of slugs in our garden, I mean 100s of the things. Would the hedgehogs eat them? I would like to attract more wildlife in general to the garden and currently we seem to get a pretty good selection of birds and we have a couple of resident squirrels too. I am a little reticent about attracting hedgehogs though, as although we are raised about 4 feet from the ground, the main road at the back of our house is a very busy one.

[@pit_stop77]

No, hedgehogs do not eat slugs as first choice food, more beatles, insects and worms

[@alenkerr8533]

I feed a hedgehog most nights for 2 years now how can I attract a mate

[@cubzzey]

My garden has chicken wire as a fence is this good enough

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Chicken wire won't have large enough holes, and you will need to create a space the size of a CD case in order for the hedgehogs to easily get through the fence and have access to your garden. However, if you do make such a hole in your fence, please be sure to remove any and all sharp wire ends that the chicken wire might create. You want to avoid causing harm to the hedgehogs and the sharp ends could be a dangerous hazard for them.

[@matthewbowes7513]

@@HedgehogsHollow thank again for the very good video

[@Exiledk]

You could ask the neighbours to stop the day-long partying...? That's not a hedgehog friendly noise.

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Yes, that's a fair comment, Keith. We've not seen any adverse impacts though on our hedgehog residents - even through Bonfire night and fireworks, our hedgehogs seem to be happy enough, or at the very least, just stay tucked up in the house and come out later at night

[@jodalry]

I thought hedgehogs eat slugs? Am I wrong? 🤔

[@MadPaperPeople]

hedgehogs eat slugs...

[@HedgehogsHollow]

Yes, they do - but slugs are not their preferred source of food, so they will seek out other food before resorting to eating slugs. But I agree, they will eat slugs when no other food is available

[@johndobell2865]

How can I keep a fox away from my garden