A KENT WILDLIFE TRUST INFORMATION SHEET
MANY MORE SMALL MAMMALS WILL
SURVIVE THE WINTER.
FEEDING
SMALL MAMMALS
IN WINTER
As well as providing food for the birds in our gardens
during the winter there are also many other hungry creatures
looking for food.
Feeding small mammals such as mice, shrews and voles
and providing a home for a hibernating hedgehogs will help many
more survive the winter cold.
Tel: 01622 662012
Head Office: Tyland Barn, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3BD
Fax: 01622 671390 www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk [email protected]
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Your Living Landscape. Your Living Seas.
Version 11 2010
Dormice, bats and hedgehogs
survive by hibernating but other
small mammals need to constantly
search for food during the winter
months.
House mice rarely survive the winter out of
doors and tend to spend the season in
buildings. Your feeding station will not
therefore attract house mice! Mice,
although preferring seeds, will eat snails and
other insects during periods of shortage.
A feeding Station for Small Mammals
Mice and voles tend to be more active
at night although voles and shrews
will search for food in sheltered areas,
such as hedgerow bottoms, during the
day. A garden feeding station however,
is more likely to be used at night.
An old tray, board or door can be used as the
feeding area and should be placed where
there is ‘’cover’’ nearby such as a hedgerow.
These timid animals will be less likely to cross
an open expanse or lawn to get to the feeding
station. A layer of moss, turf or leaves will
help the station blend in and a wire frame will
protect the small mammals from predators,
including cats.
short tailed
field vole
dormouse
They also sometimes go into a torpid
state, almost like hibernation, when they use
far less energy and this helps them survive
periods of food shortage.
Shrews are largely insectivorous and need to
feed every 2-3 hours day and night. Tinned
cat food can be put out for them but in fact
food supplies for shrews are normally plentiful
during the winter. Watching the shrews and
other small mammals feeding can be fascinating, however, and a dim red light erected
near the feeding station will not disturb the
animals but will give enough light to view the
night time visitors.
Mice and voles have a harder time in
their search for food and providing seeds,
fruits and nuts will help their survival.
The most likely member of the
mouse family to visit ardens are
wood mice and, in southern
England, yellow-necked mice.
Bank voles are the most likely member
of the vole family to visit a garden
feeding station. They are in fact
quite common in country
gardens where there is
plenty of dense cover hedgerows, shrubberies
etc. Unlike the mice,
the bank vole’s diet is wholly
vegetarian and they may therefore find
getting through the winter a bit difficult. A
vole’s natural diet consists of seeds, berries,
nuts, fruit, green plants and fungi. Food put
out for voles on the feeding station can include porridge oats and muesli or similar.
long-tailed
field mouse
mouse
bank vole
Hazel nuts nibbled by various small animals
Hedgehogs
To survive the winter hedgehogs need to find
a suitable place to hibernate and winter
homes for hedgehogs can be created in a
garden quite easily. Piles of leaf litter,
compost or brushwood left undisturbed are all
suitable or a specially dug hole, roofed with a
paving slab or a plank of wood and lined with
dead leaves, with a tunnel leading to the
surface, would be particularly
popular. It is very important
not to disturb hibernating
animals as such
disturbance can kill them.
Baby hedgehogs need to
weigh at least 1 lb if they
are to survive until spring.
Occasionally, where a litter
has been born late in the
year, young hedgehogs
bank vole
can be found weighing
far less than this.
To help them build up
essential fat reserves
they can be fed on
mealworms, tinned dog food, table scraps
or broken biscuits.
A little water or milk should be added to
keep the food moist. If baby hedgehogs are
found late in the year they can be reared
indoors over the winter.
Contact The Kent Mammal Group
(www.kentmammalgroup.org.uk)
for advice if necessary.
Attracting hedgehogs to your garden will
also provide beneficial as they feed on
garden pests such as slugs and caterpillars.
They are therefore a natural form of pest
control that can be used in preference to
chemical pesticides.
hedgehog