Dangers and help for hedgehogs The right way to help hedgehogs
With their round beady eyes and a coat of up to 8,000 spines, hedgehogs are unmistakable. Due to the decline in insect populations, caused in particular by habitat changes, pesticides, and climate change, many hedgehogs are struggling to find food suitable for their species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also recognized how dramatic the situation is. In 2024, it classified the spiny animal as “potentially endangered” for the first time in its Red List of Threatened Species. But you can help hedgehogs with just a few simple steps.
Hedgehogs rest during the day and like to rummage around in the leaves at dusk and at night for their next meal. These prickly animals prefer to roam in natural gardens and on the outskirts of settlements. They hibernate from the end of October. To help hedgehogs through the winter, you can already do something for them in the fall and summer.
How to feed hedgehogs correctly The wrong food can be fatal for hedgehogs.
Water
Offer fresh water daily, but never milk or other dairy products.
No fruit or vegetables
Please do not give hedgehogs any fruit or vegetables. The animals cannot digest them well.
Wet cat food
Feed high-quality canned wet cat food with at least 60% meat content (preferably without cereals, vegetables, sugar, spices, jelly & additives).
Hard-boiled eggs
Hard-boiled eggs or unseasoned scrambled eggs are also suitable for helping hedgehogs. Please make sure that the eggs come from animal-friendly husbandry.
In individual cases, the feeding of sick hedgehogs must be adjusted in consultation with experts.
Keep the feeding area clean to avoid diseases.
Making gardens hedgehog-friendly
Hedgehogs retreat to embankments, dense hedges or piles of leaves during the day. As agricultural land spreads and gardens are often too tidy and sterile, hedgehogs lack places to hide. If you want to do something good for the animals, design your garden in a natural way. Choose native plant species and sow wild herbs and flowers to attract insects. Given the decline in insect populations, you should avoid using insecticides and pesticides so that hedgehogs can find enough food in your garden. Hedgehogs like it messy, so it's best to mow less and leave dead plants, leaves and piles of garden waste lying around - they make ideal winter quarters. You can also put up a hedgehog house.1 A wooden box at least 40 centimetres wide and long and 30 centimetres high is suitable for each hedgehog. It is important that the hedgehog house is protected from rain and wind, has an insulating and dry base and is lined with leaves. To give hedgehogs more space to roam, holes in the fence to neighboring gardens are helpful. These should be at least 13 centimetres wide and high.
Deadly danger from robotic lawnmowers and leaf vacuum cleaners
Robotic lawn mowers kill numerous hedgehogs every year because they do not recognize animals as obstacles. Hedgehogs are not flight animals; rather, when danger strikes, they curl up on the spot into a spiky ball. The mower’s sharp blades run over the animals and severely injure them. If the animals survive, they often drag themselves into a bush, where they then die in agony.
Leaf vacuums and blowers are dangerous to various wildlife and insects. They destroy habitats, sometimes suck up insects, and shred them. Therefore, it is best for garden owners not to use leaf vacuums. It is more wildlife-friendly to leave piles of leaves where they are or to carefully move them aside with a hook and rake.
If you don’t want to do without a robotic lawn mower, you should at least use it only during the day, as hedgehogs don’t emerge from their hiding places until dusk. Please check the lawn, hedges, and bushes before use and keep an eye on the equipment while it’s running.
This hedgehog was seriously injured by a robotic lawn mower and brought to our animal welfare centre in Weidefeld. Unfortunately, due to internal injuries, it could not be saved and had to be put down.
When does a hedgehog need help? Don't just take hedgehogs home
This hedgehog is in need of help. It is clearly underweight - recognisable by a kink in its neck, the so-called hunger kink. Well-fed hedgehogs have a more rounded shape.
Hedgehogs are best kept as wild animals in the wild. It is also legally forbidden to take wild animals from the wild. You should only take in a hedgehog if it is absolutely necessary and it can be released back into the wild after successful recovery.
In these cases, a hedgehog needs help:
It is injured, e.g. has cuts or bloody spots.
It is ill. You can recognise sick hedgehogs by the fact that they stagger, cough or rattle, behave listlessly or are heavily infested with parasites.
It is very young: Orphaned young hedgehogs that wander around during the day without their mother need help immediately.
It is malnourished: Adult hedgehogs should weigh at least one kilogramme before they go into hibernation, young hedgehogs must then weigh at least 550 grams. Otherwise, the animals are dependent on supplementary feeding or must be taken into care. However, consultation with experts is always necessary here.
If hedgehogs are out and about during the day, especially from late autumn onwards, this is almost always a bad sign.
In such cases, please visit a veterinary practice or contact one of the member organisations of the German Animal Welfare Association.
Animal shelters near you
In our animal shelter search you will find the contact details of our member animal shelters and animal welfare associations as well as our regional federations in your area.
Katrin Pichl is a veterinarian and former wildlife specialist at the German Animal Welfare Federation. At our Academy for Animal Welfare, she dealt with topics such as urban pigeons, fishing and aquaculture.
Sandy Syperek is an editor at the German Animal Welfare Federation. She studied German and sociology. Her writing raises awareness of the needs and suffering of animals and gives them a voice. She wants to raise people's awareness of the fact that all animals long for a peaceful life.
