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# How to help care for your lovely spiny friends

If you're lucky enough to live in an area that hedgehogs live in you might like
to do some things to make the adorable little critters a bit more comfy in your
garden

Here are a few tips to help out your local hedgie population

## Hedgie highways

Hedgehogs love having a wander around, they can cover between 1-2km a night!

If you have an enclosed garden, it's a good idea to put little holes in your 
fence at ground level so our friends can come in and have a snuffle around

Hedgehogs can get through gaps of around 13x13cm which is much smaller than most
other animals can get through so you won't have to worry about anyone other than
hedgies coming by

## A little wild corner

Let a corner of your garden go a bit wild, don't trim back plants and let 
anything that wants to grow there put down roots

It'll let the hedgehogs have somewhere calm to nest and also get some insects
into your garden which they love to munch on

You can also put down a pile of logs for the same reason, lots of places for
hedgehogs to nest, and places for insects for them to eat

Also it gives you a super good excuse to do less gardening

## Health and safety

There are some hazards around some gardens that can harm our little friends

Avoid using pesticides and lawn treatements, both are toxic to hedgehogs and
reduce the number of insects for them to eat

If you have a garden pond then make sure there's a ramp so they can climb up out
of it, they're very good swimmers but not so good at climbing out of water

Also be aware of hedgehogs before doing things like using a strimmer or setting
bonfires, hedgehogs might be hiding where you're working and you don't want to
harm them

## Feeding time!

Hedgehogs really like having some extra food around to supplement their usual
diet, they really enjoy meaty cat or dog food (ours have a preference for
chicken flavour) and they like both wet and dry food

Water can also be a bit scarce at times so they also appreciate a small bowl or
saucer of water

## Extra credit

If you have the time and inclination you can build the hedgehogs some really
nice homes! They're super easy to build, effectively just a 40x30x30cm box with
a 30x13x13cm tube with the entrance. A guide is available from Hedgehog Street
at this URL: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/hedgehog-homes/

You can also build a nice little cafe for them! It makes a good dry place to
keep their food so that it doesn't get all damp and icky

We made ours as a box with an open side for the hedgehogs to get in to

Hedgehog cafes need to be cleaned out from time to time to stop them from
getting too messy, hedgehogs are really mucky eaters! We used some spare plastic
sheeting on the floor to make it easier to clean up after them