Helping wild hedgehogs in your garden: highways, food, water and when to call a rescue

TUREFF• •0

Wild hedgehogs in the UK and much of Europe are in trouble. In 2024 the West European hedgehog was moved from Least Concern to Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, after declines in many parts of its range, including the UK. Gardens matter enormously to hedgehogs, and small changes can genuinely help. This guide is about wild hedgehogs; if you find one that is sick or injured, a wildlife rescue is the right place to turn.

Make a hedgehog highway

Hedgehogs need to travel a long way each night to find food and mates, and fenced-in gardens cut them off.

Cut a hole about 13 centimetres square at the base of fences and walls. That is big enough for a hedgehog but too small for most pets.
Talk to your neighbours so that holes line up across several gardens.
Do not block holes with gravel boards; some fence panels are now sold with a gap built in.
The national campaign Hedgehog Street, run by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species, lets you record your highway on a map.

Make the garden safer

Avoid slug pellets and garden chemicals, which remove the invertebrates hedgehogs eat.
Check before strimming or mowing long grass and under hedges, where hedgehogs often rest.
Check bonfire piles just before lighting, or better still, build them on the day.
Cover drains and holes, and give ponds a sloping edge or a ramp so a hedgehog that falls in can climb out.
Tidy away netting, including sports and pea netting, which hedgehogs get tangled in.
Leave a wild corner with leaves, logs and long grass, or provide a hedgehog house in a quiet spot.

Food and water

Wild hedgehogs eat beetles, caterpillars, earthworms and other invertebrates. A wildlife-friendly garden supports that natural diet. Extra food can help, especially in dry weather, in autumn before hibernation and in spring when they wake.

Water: a shallow dish of fresh water, all year, is one of the most useful things you can offer.
Food: meaty cat or dog food, or cat biscuits, or a food made for wild hedgehogs that has meat as the main ingredient.
Put food in a simple feeding station, such as an upturned box with a hedgehog-sized entrance, to keep cats out. Several small feeding spots can reduce squabbles.
Clean dishes daily.

What not to feed

Milk: hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and milk can make them seriously ill. Offer water instead.
Bread: offers no real nutrition.
Mealworms, sunflower hearts and peanuts: wildlife carers have long warned that diets heavy in these can disturb a hedgehog's calcium balance and contribute to bone disease, especially in young hedgehogs. Avoid them rather than offering them as a staple.
Anything salty, sugary or spicy.

When a hedgehog needs help

Hedgehogs are nocturnal, so one out in daylight is often a warning sign. Call a local wildlife rescue or hedgehog rescue for advice if you see a hedgehog that:

Is out in the day and lying still, wobbling, circling or struggling to walk
Has flies around it or visible injuries
Is lying out in the open
Is a small hoglet out alone, especially in late autumn
Has been caught in netting or fallen into a hole

Not every daytime hedgehog is in trouble. One moving purposefully, perhaps gathering nesting material in spring or summer, may be a mother with young nearby. Watch from a distance and ask a rescue if unsure.

If you need to contain one

Wear thick gloves, gently lift the hedgehog into a high-sided box lined with a towel, keep it somewhere quiet, and offer water but no milk. Then contact a rescue straight away. Do not try to treat it, give any medicine, or keep it yourself. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society can help you find a rescue near you. What have you done to make your garden hedgehog friendly? Share your experience or questions in the comments.