Since artificial lightin gardens disrupt natural behaviour for a range of wildlife it's important to retain some dark areas and alsoquestion whether you really need lighting. The trend for lighting up gardens as an extension of our living space may seem an inviting one but needs to be done with great care. A garden can be just as magical a place enjoyed in moonlight or simply with the aid of torch! The full range of colors is duplicated in each of these groups. From a genetic perspective, this may be because an extra gene or group of gene modifiers are either intensifying or paling out the color and shading to create the ‘second’ group.

Yes, they are spiky and those spikes can hurt, but that’s not a reason to leave a suffering hedgehog. Hedgehog homes should be placed under a shrub or hedge, or even by a compost heap, or somewhere with good cover and in a quiet part of the garden, so they won’t get disturbed. You can help by leaving out cat food and fresh water each night particularly when the weather is colder, and hogs are struggling to find food. They are usually hungry bods and will munch up your offering with gusto. 2) Landscaping Algerian masks in the darker colors are a much deeper color and extend well past the eyes. In the paler varieties, Algerian masks are somewhat lighter and have a browner hue. The banding and fur color in the wild are often closer to the darker ‘Algerian’ color type. Extended masks are also seen in some wild four-toed hedgehogs.Hedgehog numbers are dwindling at the same rate as tiger numbers. Without change they will become endangered and possibly disappear from our communities entirely. Hedgehogs are attracted to gardens with a good food supply. Native insects are their natural diet, but supplemental feeding is very welcome. Native shrubs, low growing foliage and flowers will pull in the insects and hedgehogs will follow for a meal. It might be exciting to see a hedgehog out during the day. It’s probably the only chance you get to take a proper look at one.

Gardening is an enjoyable but never-ending job, so it’s easy to reach for the strimmer, unfortunately these machines cause horrific injuries to wildlife. Hogs are constantly brought into rescues centres missing limbs and swathes of skin. Often these injuries are life-ending. If you’d like to do more to help, firstly, we recommend you have a look at the best hedgehog houses that we tested. In 2014 the company changed its name to Smart Garden Products and introduced more than 350 new products in 6 distinct garden product categories. These new products are supplied under the Smart Garden brand, with Smart Solar being retained as the brand for our solar products range, which we continue to expand. Called Urchins. Typical litter is 4 to 6 babies, but can have around 10. Normally born early to late summer, although the late born babies will struggle to put on the weight needed for hibernation. Hogs will help you with snail control so please don’t use pellets. Hedgehogs don’t eat the pellets but they do eat the snails that have ingested the poison, and this can kill them. It also leaves them with no food supply. It’s no wonder hogs are dying out.

Hedgehogs in the garden

If you are putting out food & water – then this should be well away from any nest box, so you are not attracting other animals to the nesting area. Many people don’t have a clue they have nocturnal visitors, but if you leave out food, and it’s gone in the morning, keep your eyes peeled at night for a garden visitor. If you suspect hogs but can’t ever spot them put a garden wildlife camera on your Christmas list. What You Can Do to Help Hedgehogs Once you have hedgehog visitors, don’t trap them in your garden as a free snail killer, they need to roam and one garden won’t provide enough variety even if you give extra foods. However, several factors suggest that these hedgehogs were likely all variants of a single species: Atalerix albiventris– the white-bellied or four-toed hedgehog who came from Central Africa. Hedgehogs need to weigh at least 600 grams for their winter hibernation and they are much lighter when they awake from this. Hedgehogs that get too big lose their ability to curl up tightly, their only natural defence.