Homeowners with gardens urged to create hedgehog havens

To help you provide a hedgehog haven in your garden this autumn and winter, Faith in Nature has shared five ways you can lend hedgehogs a helping hand.

Although a report from the beginning of 2024 noted garden sightings of hedgehogs had increased by two percentage points, their population has massively decreased since the millennium, with a decline of 30% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas, explains Faith in Nature.

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How to create a hedgehog haven in your garden this autumn

Create ‘hedgehog highways’

Gardens can be a rich habitat for hedgehogs and they help keep them away from the dangers of busy roads.

However, the small creatures can roam around a mile every night so one enclosed garden isn’t enough for them.

‘Hedgehog highways’ are a way of connecting multiple gardens, giving hedgehogs more safe space to roam, Faith in Nature explains.

You’ll need to cut a 13 x 13 cm hole in a garden fence, or you can follow these other tips for making hedgehog highways from Hedgehog Street. 

Faith in Nature is urging homeowners with gardens to encourage their neighbours and others in their community to do the same, adding that the more hedgehog highways we have, the better.

While gardeners may see caterpillars and slugs as pests, hedgehogs feed on these creatures so they can help keep them off your plants.

Native wild animals in the UK

Make a wild corner

While neatly manicured lawns and flower beds look great, a wilder area can help make hedgehogs feel welcome.

Compost heaps or piles of leaves and logs in a quiet corner of the garden can provide the perfect place for hedgehogs to sleep or hibernate. 

As well as offering a snug, secluded sleeping spot, warm, dry, and dark areas like this will attract the invertebrates hedgehogs eat, like worms, slugs and insects.

If you have a long garden, consider making your wild area at the bottom, away from the house. 

Try leaving a patch of bare soil to give hedgehogs easy access to worms. Let grass grow tall and plant wildflower seeds to attract even more invertebrates and pollinators.

During the colder months, humans can help hedgehogs survive and offer somewhere for them to hibernate in their gardens (Image: Getty)

Provide a hedgehog home

Hedgehog houses provide a safe, cosy place for hedgehogs to sleep or hibernate.

In autumn, hedgehogs collect dried leaves, moss and other plant matter to line their cosy winter bed for hibernation. 

If your garden already has compost heaps or wild areas as mentioned above, they might choose to spend their winter there, or in other quiet areas, like under a shed.

You can also provide a purpose-built hedgehog house for them to bed down over winter. These can either be bought or made but you should avoid any that have mesh inside as these can get caught on hedgehog’s spines.

For more information on how to make a hedgehog house, you can visit the British Hedgehog Preservation Society website.

Give supplementary food

When there are fewer invertebrates around for them to feed on, providing hedgehogs with supplementary food can help them get through the colder months.

It can also help them ‘fatten up’ in autumn when wild food is in shorter supply and they need to increase their energy stores ahead of hibernation. 

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Hedgehogs don’t sleep solidly for the entire winter - whenever their fat reserves start to run out, they’ll wake up and go in search of food.

Provide good quality cat or dog food (wet or dry, non-fish varieties) and never feed a hedgehog bread and milk, as it can make them sick.

Leave clean, fresh water out, especially during dry spells. 

You can help keep the food away from cats by making a hedgehog feeding station out of a storage box, cutting a small hole for the hedgehogs to get through and weighing it down with bricks. 

Make sure your garden is safe

Healthy hedgehogs should always be left alone.

Hedgehogs are nocturnal so if you see one out and about during the day, especially sprawling in the sun, it may be unwell.

If you find a sick or injured hedgehog, Hedgehog Street can help you understand what to do.

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To make sure your garden is safe for hedgehogs, don’t use netting or mesh at ground level as hedgehogs can get caught up in it and avoid using slug pellets completely. 

Before using a strimmer, check to make sure no hedgehogs are hiding away in the undergrowth. If you’re planning on burning leaves or logs, or having a bonfire, check the pile first to make sure a hedgehog hasn’t made it its home.

If you have a pond, provide a ramp made of bricks or slates so that any hedgehogs who fall into the water have an escape route.