12/10/2026
🦔 HEDGEHOGS 🦔
As temperatures begin to drop, hedgehogs are preparing for hibernation. 💤
🍂HOW TO HELP AUTUMN JUVENILES🍂
✅ Place food out every evening, ideally in a feeding station to keep cats and dogs away
✅Fresh water at all times
✅Food to feed: wet cat food, dry cat biscuits, specialist hedgehog food
❌Food not to feed: mealworms, sunflower hearts, peanuts, bread or milk
✅Hedgehogs build a winter nest called a hibernaculum, to assist them: leave leaf piles undisturbed, avoid tidying the garden too much, provide nesting materials (dry leaves, long grass, moss & straw), put out a hedgehog house and never move or disturb a hedgehog’s nest
WHEN TO INTERVENE:
Young hedgehogs born late in the season appear small and underweight. Many people assume they are too small to hibernate and take them from the wild. This is rarely necessary.
A juvenile hedgehog should weigh at least 450-500g by the time night temperature consistently falls below 5 degrees. They have plenty of time to forage and grow until then.
ONLY RESCUE WHEN:
✅ they are out during the day
✅ they appear injured, wobbly or cold
✅ clearly underweight (tiny, thin or visibly struggling)
✅ night temperatures have dropped below 5 degrees for a week or frost has arrived
Otherwise leave them in the wild, provide food and allow them to build weight naturally!
