I used to feed dried mealworms, peanuts and sunflower hearts to hedgehogs visiting my garden. I fed them in moderation but I didn’t know quite how bad they were for the health of wild hedgehogs.
I knew that mealworms were like sweets to. hedgehogs. If given the choice, they would live on nothing but this junk food. They are highly addictive and hedgehogs will soon choose to consume nothing else. Even if you only leave out a few, if your neighbours are doing the same, it is easy for a wild hedgehog to eat nothing else.
Hedgehogs and metabolic bone disease
I didn’t appreciate that mealworms, and also peanuts and sunflower hearts, actively strip hedgehog bones of calcium. This is the likely cause of increasing numbers of hedgehogs like Benjamin coming into hedgehog rescues with mobility issues.
Please read the article to find out more about metabolic bone disease, calcium/phosphorus ratios and why you shouldn’t feed these foods. The article also has a good list of what foods are definitely suitable for wild hedgehogs. There is also an excellent video here about metabolic bone disease.
What to feed wild hedgehogs
A good quality kitten or cat biscuit, water and some meaty cat or dog food is all you need to keep your prickly visitors healthy. The higher the meat content the better. You can also feed a specialist hedgehog food but please check the ingredients and avoid ‘muesli’ varieties that can contain mealworms, peanuts and sunflower hearts.
There are lots of myths surrounding feeding hedgehogs cat and dog food. Hedgehogs can eat any flavour of cat and dog food including fish and gravy. In my experience they just tend to prefer the chicken or beef flavours but there is absolutely no reason why you can’t feed them other flavours and gravy varieties. If you want to read more about these myths, here is a great article by a leading hedgehog wildlife hospital..
You can also help by making your garden insect friendly to ensure there are plenty of beetles and caterpillars – the best natural foods for hedgehogs. There is plenty of calcium in the exoskeletons of beetles.
Do be careful when feeding mealworms, sunflower hearts and peanuts to wild birds to make sure that no significant quantities are ending up on the ground where they could be picked up by hedgehogs overnight.
Learn how to help hedgehogs
If you would like to know more about helping hedgehogs in your garden I run online hedgehog courses sharing my tips and advice for how to help wild hedgehogs for all levels of knowledge and experience.
More about me
I’m currently transforming an acre of the Yorkshire Wolds into a haven for wildlife, alongside rehabilitating hedgehogs. If you’ve found the information on my website useful, please consider making a donation to help me continue my awareness work. I also make handmade silver jewellery inspired by nature and wildlife.
Little Silver Hedgehog 