Would you like to help wild animals in your garden by making your own hedgehog food? Find out here which foods are suitable and how you can feed the little critters!
In the wild, hedgehogs mainly eat insects, but they are also omnivores, which is why you can make different hedgehog food for them. Animal lovers can use food from almost all categories to help wild animals find food before winter. In addition, the spiny creatures like to feed on worms, snakes, frogs, snails, eggs and certain fruits. Although they are not particularly picky, hedgehogs primarily need protein-rich foods. These can be combined in different ways to provide the animals with a nutritious meal. If you want to know more about it, here are some tips and ideas for its preparation.
What should you consider when making your own hedgehog food?
If you're lucky enough, oneHedgehogs in your garden areaTo house them, you should consider a few factors when feeding them. The amount of food you give the animal depends on its metabolism and physical activity. For example, if you breed a hedgehog, you should pay attention to its weight. If you gain weight, the daily amount administered should be reduced.
In addition, these mammals today have difficulty finding suitable habitat and food due to many factors. Hence theHedgehog population according to scientific reportsdecreased significantly in recent years. This decline is actually seen in rural areas, with hedgehogs doing better in cities than in the countryside. Therefore, every home garden can be an important place for animal survival. Therefore, people can help any prickly friend by making some homemade hedgehog food for them. For this purpose, however, it would first be important to find out what hedgehogs are allowed to eat.
When and with what type of food should you feed a hedgehog?
Some invertebrates and insects are the natural and most important source of food for mammals. Your typical daily menu includes, for example, caterpillars, beetles, worms, centipedes and fly larvae. The little critters can also hunt their prey by sniffing through undergrowth and grass. They also have a keen sense of hearing and smell, which helps them with this.
However, because hedgehogs are also opportunistic gluttons, they also feed on other foods such as carrion, fruit and eggs from ground-nesting birds. Therefore, you can make your own hedgehog food by combining different edible and protein-rich foods. These can be based on chicken, eggs and other animal foods. Since hedgehogs don't have an appendix and have difficulty digesting cellulose, you should avoid feeding them fruit. It's best to give them the food either in the fall or after their hibernation when they wake up hungry.
How can you make your own hedgehog food?
It can be very important to support hedgehogs in the garden before winter by providing them with food and water. For this purpose, you can place a food bowl with treats in the garden or even aBuild your own hedgehog house. Just make sure you don't use any of the following foods when feeding hedgehogs:
- Bread products and dairy products – Although hedgehogs are omnivores, they cannot tolerate gluten and are lactose intolerant. Therefore, you should not use milk or bread when making your own hedgehog food. In addition, such products have low nutritional value for the animals.
- Mealworms – If you add various worms to hedgehog food, you should avoid mealworms. These can also cause health problems for wildlife if they eat them in large quantities.
Otherwise, the following example can help you if you want to prepare hedgehog food yourself quickly and easily.
Choose suitable foods and make simple hedgehog food yourself
This would be an easy and quick way to ensure you make fresh hedgehog food yourself. This means you can not only save time, but also recycle leftover food sustainably for the animals in need. The preparation method is also not difficult, although the amount would be enough for one to four animals. If you grow some yourself or have some in your garden, you can make larger quantities. Another advantage is that you can freeze the food by pouring it into ice cube trays. This allows you to divide the food into ideal portion sizes. It also usually defrosts in just 30 minutes.
The products you can use for this are, for example, vegetables (without corn) and fish or meat. Some examples include chicken, beef or turkey, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and parsnips. You also need a hand blender and of course the ice cube trays. Simply follow the steps below to easily make your own hedgehog food.
Preparation method
- First, use a pot and cook your chosen vegetables in it without adding salt.
- First, you can either fry the meat briefly or cook it until al dente like the vegetables without seasoning it.
- Then put all the prepared foods in a large bowl and use the immersion blender to puree them.
- As a result, you will get a kind of paste, where all large pieces should be crushed. The consistency should be similar to pate or cat food.
- Now spoon the paste into the ice cube tray until you have filled it all.
- As soon as you make and fill the hedgehog food yourself, you can freeze it directly or give it to the animals.
- You can also store the individual cubes in a freezer bag with a seal in the freezer.
- When you want to feed the hedgehogs, you can simply remove the cubes and let them thaw at room temperature for about half an hour.
- You can also add small amounts of olive oil or tender oatmeal to the hedgehog's food. The animals need foods that are high in fat and protein.
