Hedgehogs are insectivores and prefer a diet that includes beetles, earthworms, spiders and occasionally snails or snail eggs. However, in late summer in particular, it can be useful to feed them with special food. This is when the main feeding period begins, the phase in which the birds prepare for hibernation and build up their fat reserves. We offer a hedgehog-friendly feed mixture without cereal ingredients, which has been specially developed by wildlife feed specialist Claus in Limburgerhof, Palatinate, in collaboration with experienced hedgehog sanctuaries. It contains everything that young and nutritionally sensitive or weakened animals in particular need for a good winter. This includes the best meat, valuable insects and egg to provide protein, as well as essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements. The special hedgehog food is lactose-free and also contains no nuts or vegetables.

You need to know this: Hedgehogs are a potentially endangered wild animal species in Germany and have been on the Red List of Threatened Species since 2024. At the same time, due to a lack of alternatives, this cultural successor now lives almost exclusively in the vicinity of us humans and painstakingly makes its home in and around our gardens and green spaces. A natural garden design makes a significant contribution to a hedgehog-friendly garden environment. Hedgehog protection means less tidying up! This is because the animals find shelter and nesting opportunities in piles of leaves or dead wood and in the undergrowth of the garden hedge. As the spiny hedgehogs usually open up quite large territories and, as nocturnal animals, like to roam the area at dusk in particular, an open space in the garden fence as a passageway is at least as important for them as a sufficient natural food supply. An urgent request in this context: Do not let your robotic lawnmower run in the evening and at night. Collisions with robotic lawnmowers pose a great danger to hedgehogs and are now even one of the main causes of death for the animals.

And another thing: hedgehogs are not pets. However, as wild animals living in the wild, they can be dependent on help from us humans if their health is impaired or they are visibly underweight. Hedgehogs are considered underweight if they weigh less than 500 grams before the start of winter. Hedgehogs are solitary creatures. If they are brought indoors, they need a separate enclosure with a sleeping house (padded with newspaper) and a run of around two to four square meters. The room temperature should be between 15 and max. 20 °C, and around 5 °C during the hibernation period. The animals accept the special food from a shallow bowl. It is also important to provide them with sufficient drinking water. If a hedgehog gains enough weight before the frost period begins, it should no longer be kept indoors and should be released - ideally close to where it was found. Experts recommend offering it food for some time afterwards.
There is plenty of important additional information on the Internet, for example on the website of the Pro Igel e.V. association at www.pro-igel.de

Natural habitats for wild animals are increasingly disappearing in our tidy landscape. One problem is that the natural food resources are being cut back along with the hunting grounds. Nuts, fruit, seeds or insects are often no longer available in sufficient quantities, and so year-round supplementary feeding in the garden - especially in urban areas - is now a contribution to species conservation. Our native songbirds benefit from this, as do hedgehogs and squirrels as small mammals.

The ready-made feed offered here comes from a specialist in the Palatinate, who only uses natural, GMO-free raw materials for his feed. The family business was founded by a master glazier who was a keen birdwatcher in his spare time. He started the business in 1904 with a small mealworm farm and soon also produced feed mixtures for insect-pecking garden birds and other special feed for wild animals.