Feeding Hedgehogs now

Now is the time to feed your spiky garden visitors, ready for them to hibernate in a couple of months time. Hedgehog hibernation is a very special process and alongside bats and dormice they are the only animals that hibernate over winter. Hibernation is a process by which the body and respiratory system almost shut down, the Hedgehogs ears and skin are cold, its heart rate falls from 190 to 20 beats per minute and it breathes only once every couple of minutes. To the eye the hedgehog is dead, but if you touch it a natural response of curling up and tucking its head in occurs. They are fine down to about 1 degree, but if the weather turns colder, they will wake up and go to find another place to nest, so if you have a hedgehog habitat in your garden, it is a good thing to cover it well with insulative material, I use old hessian peanut sacks and raspberry canes, this prevents the worst of the wind, rain and snow from getting to the hedgehogs environment. Hedgehogs are insectivores, so right now they are eating all the bugs and caterpillars on the garden, but soon the bugs will disappear and  basically, the longer the hedgehog can find food the better it will survive winter. Our hedgehog premium food is designed to be appetising and nutritious for the hedgehogs and in the next couple of months this is just right for them to find a boost to their natural diet.