Help a hungry hedgehog this spring with numbers in rapid decline

Thatcham-based sanctuary Hedgehog Bottom has joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in its campaign to encourage residents to provide food for the spiky critters, with low quantities of insects to sustain them ahead of the breeding season.
Founder and manager of Hedgehogs Bottom, Gill Lucraft, said: “In 1955 there were 35 million hedgehogs in the country; we are now down to under one million.
“If it carries on at this rate we could lose them altogether in the next 15 to 20 years.
“Feeding them is important because they rely pretty much on back gardens - there’s nothing for them out in the country anymore.”
She has advised people to put bowls of cat biscuits under bushes to keep them dry, and shallow dishes of water around the garden.
Anyone can make the grub cat-proof by putting it inside a plastic crate with a four-inch by four-inch plastic hole cut into the side.
The RSPB has launched a specially designed hedgehog food, Cranberry Crunch, which is available in its charity shops and online, and 100 per cent of profits go back into the charity.
It has also urging residents to avoid using chemicals and slug pellets in the garden, as well as using non-toxic brands when putting preservative on garden sheds, fences and other wood furniture.