Pets and plants.

I find this subject very interesting. Perhaps if 2nd Basson has time time he/she might enlighten us. Often it might be taken for granted that the digestive system of animals, 'appear to have an inbuilt system that protects them from shall we say upset tummies.

Due to a couple, mother & daughter ferile cats that spend their time in my garden thus attracting the local males. Somehow these two felines have adopted me as a friend. I love all animals. I have put out bowls of fresh milk, also fresh water. I later tip both away. Looking out of the window I see not only these two but also their consorts, drink out of my pond. At time I might get a whiff of the pond water. Ugh! However the animals seem to prefer it. Also visiting foxes and hedgehogs prefer the pond, albeit baby hedghogs do enjoy milk.

 

Mike, you should not feed fish, pork, bread or dairy to hedgehogs - including milk. They cannot digest milk and it could aggravate their systems.
This information is offered by our local wildlife rescue that I help with on occasions and is affiliated with local vets, the Fox project and the British Hedgehog preservation Society, as well as the RSPCA.
All animals and birds need water !!

 

Many thanks Tetters. Perhaps a slight misunderstanding. Me providing whatever for whoever. Wildlife comes along and takes or leaves.
Perhaps an observation here. Us gardeners so often revert to using chemicals in the garden. A general and pain in the proverbial, Mr slug. So we use slug pellets etc. The nightlfe creatures come along and gobble the victims up. Our prized lawn. Worm casts everywhere, so we resort to chemicals. Our nightly wildlife, scavengers come along and clear up. So who is right or wrong? As I mentioned, this can become a very interesting theme.

 

Excellent info 2nd bassoon.

 

@Mike Allen Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and dairy milk can cause severe diarrhoea. On a worse case scenario it can prove fatal. Bread is also not good as it fills the hedgehog up but contains nothing of any nutritional value, so they are less inclined to look for other, natural foods as they feel full.

The best foods to offer to hedgehogs as a supplement are wet cat/dog food and kitten biscuits. There has been some debate over this recently concerning the percentages of meat and the amount of fillers and cereals contained in these foods and whether they have the same effects as bread. The cheaper the brand, the higher the amount of additives - some of the brands I looked at contained only 20% meat and 80% fillers. The foods we put out for the hogs should be supplemental to their natural diet but feeding them incorrectly could cause more harm than good. As has proved to be the case with dried mealworms having being found to cause Metabolic Bone Disease. Having said all this I have found that a very high meat content kitten biscuit of 75 - 80% can cause tummy upsets. I also noted that the hogs fed this ate less of it compared to the Concept for Life, Royal Canin and Purina Pro Plan brands I regularly use, which have a lesser meat content. I imagine the higher meat content is less palatable. There is a lot of division on what to feed currently but all I can say is maybe avoid very cheap brands.

There is also some debate over fish. Fish is not something hogs appear to eat in the wild but some rescuers will use it for poorly or baby hogs as it can be more easily digested. I used salmon once for a very poorly baby hog. I don't use fish based foods for the wild hogs.

You can offer small amounts of cooked chopped chicken or turkey, chopped egg, dried fruits such as sultanas or raisins, fresh fruits such apples, strawberries, red currants. And, I have heard that hedgehogs are partial to custard creams - although I wouldn't recommend feeding them on a regular basis.

Leaving out bowls of fresh water is very good idea, particularly in hot weather.

 

Excellent information @2nd_bassoon I was very imprseeed , and then read you are a vet !
My stepsons Lab loves a raw carrot as a treat and Molly is definitely an omnivore , she loves pork and leek sausages

 

What an educational and informative thread this has become.
At least one hedgehog lives...or visits...my garden; love that

 

I hope you are taking good care of your visitor Verdun .

They are doing somewhat better in urban areas now as their decline towards extinction has been widely publicized and lots of people eager to help them . Not so much in rural areas though, decline is still in downward trend .

 

Agree.. best bet would be to put out kitten biscuits Mike, that way the cats, foxes and hedgehogs will all be happy and free to help themselves. If you wish to make sure the hogs get the food, look up feeding stations on YouTube.

Cats and dogs are both pretty much lactose intolerant as well as hogs so just provide fresh water if you can

 

Oh yes Lucius.....had a few good suggestions from Mark a while back

 

I wish it was a subject I was more knowledgable about @Mike Allen; nutrition and digestion is fascinating and diverse, and there is so much (often contradictory) information out there. Certainly some animals do seem to have an innate knowledge of what plants they ought to avoid, though anaecdotally I do wonder if it's something we have inadvertantly bred out of our domestic species, to some degree. Horses in particular are notorious for eating plants that are bad for them - as a student one of my jobs on equine placements was to clear the fields of ragwort before the horses were turned out. Or maybe we just don't see/know of the wild animals that ate what they oughten't?

Then there are the ones who are just plain stupid; I once had to make a dog vomit after his owner saw him eat a sock. He bought up the sock along with his dinner and promptly tried to scoff the whole lot back down again

That is definitely the case, especially with cats - there's something about tap water that seems to put a lot of them off! I know of a few owners who have dedicated waterbutts set up to fill the waterbowls inside, and it's a tactic we often recommend to increase water intake in cats prone to cystitis. I've got no sensible explantion for it; possibly the taint of chlorine?!

As @Tetters, @luciusmaximus and @Mark56 have said, I would avoid leaving out milk for visiting animals; most adult cats and dogs have some degree of lactose intolerance, not to mention the unnecessary calories. We're facing an obesity epidemic in pets as well as people.

@luciusmaximus I didn't realise hedgehog populations were still declining rurally, that is a great shame Interestingly I grew up in rural North Wales, and didn't see my first "wild" hedgehog until I was in my early 20s when I was living in a slightly less rural area just outside Bristol. Is there a lot of geographical variation in populations (putting aside rural/urban factors), or was I just a very unobservant child?

 

For years my wife and I used to holiday in the New Forest. I would often join the locals with pulling up ragwort.

Just along the lane to where I live there are fields, formerly a dairy farm, now grazing for horses. One section was llottments, the council closed the plots giving the field over to the horses. Now that field is covered in docks.

 

I live in a very rural location and we seem to have quite an army of hogs here. Someone in the village brought a drunk one to me last summer. We didn't realise he had been on the booze until his hang over the following morning. our local vet confirmed that he ''just got tiddly'' .... no wonder we have so many - they get fed and watered, decent bedding, and then off they go out on the razzle

Just for the record @Mike Allen and anyone who is not aware, if pulling ragwort, protective gloves should be worn.

 

Many thanks Tetters. Yes I was aware of that. I wonder if the little hog (Spike) had been doing a beer trap crawl?

 

So Verdun. What's this new addition to your family?