Recently we’ve come across a series of books based on real-life animal rescues by the RSPCA!
Plus for every copy sold, 15p will be donated to the RSPCA.
One of the books, Little Lost Hedgehog, is all about a girl called Grace who finds a tiny hedgehog in her garden – it’s all alone, lost and hungry and needs urgent care.
But with help from the RSPCA, they’re able to help the hedgehog get better and return to the wild!
Little Lost Hedgehog is out now – click here to find out more and get your copy!
And in case the book inspires you to find out more about hedgehogs, the RSPCA has given us some quick hedgehog facts for you:
1. A hedgehog’s spiky coat has about 5,000 spines which can grow up to 2.5cm long
2. When a hedgehog rolls up it protects itself – most predators can’t get past all of its prickly spines!
3. As many as ten different hedgehogs may visit your garden over several nights, which could mean “your hedgehog” may in fact be a number of different individuals visiting at different times
Now, do you want to encourage hedgehogs to visit your garden? Then here are some tips to help make it more attractive!
(Remember to always check with an adult before you do any of this stuff – just to be safe!)
1. Food will encourage visiting hedgehogs to return regularly. You could ask an adult to leave out food such as minced meat, tinned dog food (not fish-based), or chopped boiled eggs. There’s also hedgehog food available, which can usually be bought from garden shops.
2. Never leave out milk for hedgehogs because it’s bad for them, but a saucer of fresh water is a good idea.
3. Ask an adult to create a home for a hedgehog – it’s as simple as creating a hedgehog-friendly area with a pile of leaves, or even putting a piece of board against a pile of bricks at an angle. Hedgehog homes can also be bought from garden shops.
4. When it comes to hibernation, hedgehogs like to bed down in piles of leaves and brushwood. You can help by leaving areas of the garden “wild” to encourage a hedgehog to nest there.
There’s a lot more information about making your garden hedgehog-friendly at www.rspca.org.uk