Attracting Hedgehogs Safely to Your Garden

Why Your Garden Matters More Than You Think

Hedgehogs were once a familiar sight on mild evenings in the British countryside, snuffling along hedgerows and garden borders. Today the picture is far less certain. Numbers have fallen sharply over recent decades, and the reasons are the usual suspects: loss of habitat, tidy fences, busy roads, and a countryside that has quietly become less welcoming.

The encouraging news is that ordinary gardens have become genuinely important. A network of modest plots, each with a gap in the fence and a corner left a little wild, can function as a lifeline for local hedgehogs. You do not need acres of land or a rewilding project. A few thoughtful changes will do far more good than you might expect.

Make an Entrance: Gaps, Borders and Hedgehog Highways

A hedgehog can roam well over a mile in a single night in search of food and mates. A solid fence line stops that journey dead, effectively trapping a hedgehog in one garden with limited foraging.

The simplest fix is a hedgehog highway: a gap roughly 13 centimetres square at the base of a fence or wall. That is about the size of a CD case, and it is small enough to keep most pets out while letting hedgehogs pass. If you can, agree with neighbours to line several gaps up, creating a continuous route along the street.

• Cut a notch at the bottom of a fence panel rather than removing a whole board.
• Lift a gravel board slightly, or set a paving slab on its side to create a tunnel.
• Keep the gap clear of leaves and debris through autumn and winter.
• Plant native hedging — hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel or beech — where you can. It offers cover and insect food in one.

Water, Food and the Things to Avoid

A shallow dish of fresh water is one of the kindest things you can put out. Use something with gently sloping sides and a depth of no more than a few centimetres, and refresh it daily. Hedgehogs are thirsty animals, particularly in dry spells, and they can drown in steep-sided containers.

If you want to offer supplementary food, meat-based cat or dog food in jelly and cat biscuits are suitable. So are chopped unsalted peanuts and mealworms, though these should be a treat rather than a staple. Put food out at dusk and clear leftovers in the morning to avoid attracting rats.

What you should never offer is just as important:

• Milk — hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and it causes serious digestive problems.
• Bread — filling but nutritionally useless.
• Slug pellets and pesticides — hedgehogs eat poisoned slugs and can die as a result. They also lose the insects that make up most of their natural diet.
• Mealworms in bulk — excessive amounts can cause bone problems.

Shelter for Nesting and Hibernation

From roughly November to March, hedgehogs hibernate, though the timing shifts with the weather. Before that they need to build up fat reserves, so autumn is a critical period. A good hedgehog garden provides piles of natural material where they can nest.

Leave a corner of the garden untidy. A heap of leaves, twigs, moss and grass cuttings in a quiet spot is ideal, and the less you disturb it the better. Log piles are excellent too — stack timber loosely, leaving gaps and crevices, and let it rot down slowly rather than tidying it away.

• Build a simple hibernaculum from a wooden box with a 13 centimetre entrance hole, filled with dry leaves and tucked under a hedge.
• Place purpose-made hedgehog houses in a shaded, sheltered spot, with the entrance facing away from prevailing wind.
• Leave piles of leaves in borders over winter instead of clearing them all.
• Check any bonfire heap thoroughly before lighting, ideally moving it the day before.

Safety Hazards to Watch For

Even a well-meaning garden can hold dangers. Strimmers and mowers cause terrible injuries to hedgehogs hidden in long grass, so walk the area first and cut from the centre outwards. Keep netting — the sort used for fruit cages or sports nets — pulled taut and at least 30 centimetres above the ground, as hedgehogs become badly tangled in slack loops.

Garden ponds need an escape route. A gently sloping edge, a piece of rough timber, or a ramp covered in chicken wire will let a hedgehog climb out if it falls in. Drainage gullies and steep-sided drains deserve a check as well.

Finally, if you see a hedgehog out in daylight, particularly in winter, something is usually wrong. Contact a local wildlife rescue for advice rather than trying to care for it yourself.

A Garden That Gives Back

Everything above costs very little and takes an afternoon to set up. Leave a wild corner, cut a gap in the fence, put down a shallow dish of water, and stop reaching for the slug pellets. In return you get a garden alive with beetles, moths and birdsong — and perhaps, on a warm June evening, the rustle of something small and prickly going about its business among the flowerbeds. That is rural wellbeing in its truest form.