A feedstation is a great way of feeding the hedgehogs in your garden and there are lots of ideas on the internet how to make one.
An entrance and an exit is a good design as it allows a quick escape if needed when a second hedgehog arrives.
Stop cats from getting in and eating the food by making the holes 4" high x 5" wide (9cm x 12cm). That's still big enough to let a large hedgehog in. Some people add tunnels made from piping or place bricks around the entrance way. Cats need more room to manoevre than a hedgehog does.
Bowls or dishes of food can be placed inside the feed station. Hedgehogs love to paddle in water and so to keep the inside of the feed station and the food dry it's better to leave the bowls of water outside.
Even a few bricks and a concrete paving slab will make a feedstation.
Mum hedgehogs love to take their babies on excursions round the best feeding sites so your hedgehog station will be there to feed the next generation. Look out for the little ones visiting on a summer evening.
As you can see the hedgehog diet consists mainly of beetles and caterpillars - good wholesome food! In spring and summer there are plenty of these to be found in well planted gardens and along the hedgerow. In autumn and winter when the bugs have died off there will be little food for a hungry hedgehog and he may resort to eating slugs and earthworms - always plentiful but full of parasites and these will quickly kill a small or weak hedgehog.
These are all great for feeding hedgehogs in your garden. Some are quite expensive but the supermarket own brands are cheap and will do the job nicely. Avoid the fancy ones eg 'with tasty pockets' - hedgehogs like plain kibble type biscuits - and only feed meat flavour not fish flavour.
And finally NEVER feed dried mealworms to hedgehogs. They have no nutritious value whatsoever for mammals which leads to metabolic bone disease resulting in painful fractures and a hedgehog that cannot walk properly.
