Found a hedgehog – what to do?
When a hedgehog needs help
- It is injured, has wounds or is covered in fly eggs and maggots.
- It walks or lies around in broad daylight, staggers or seems listless.
- It is out and about in frost or snow.
- It is a baby hedgehog: eyes closed, outside the nest during the day.
- It is visibly thin (a dip behind the head, sunken flanks) or weighs well under 500 grams in early November.
What to do now
- Pick it up with gloves or a towel and put it in a tall cardboard box with newspaper and a towel.
- If it is cold (belly cooler than your hand): put a hot-water bottle at hand temperature under the towel.
- Pick off fly eggs and maggots with tweezers.
- Put out a shallow dish of water. As food, wet cat food or unseasoned scrambled egg – only once the hedgehog is warm.
- Call a hedgehog rescue, a veterinary practice or us and take the hedgehog there.
Please do not
- No milk – hedgehogs cannot digest it and get diarrhoea.
- No fruit, no nuts, no bread: hedgehogs eat insects.
- Do not bathe it or treat it with flea products for dogs or cats.
- Do not collect a healthy hedgehog. Hedgehogs are specially protected; you may only take in animals that need help, and only to release them again once healthy.
Who helps
Hedgehog rescues and wildlife helpers in your area, any veterinary practice (first aid for wild animals is common there) – or report the hedgehog to us with its location.
Report an emergency Animal rescue near you
Frequent questions
I found a hedgehog nest with young. What now?
Cover it as it was and keep your distance. The mother is out looking for food and will come back. The young only need help if they lie outside the nest during the day or the mother is dead.
May I keep a hedgehog over the winter?
Only if it is too light or ill, and ideally in agreement with a hedgehog rescue. In spring it is released where it was found.
Related
This page gives general advice. It replaces neither a vet nor legal advice.
More guides
- Wild animal foundFound a wild animal – who helps?
- Finding an emergency vetEmergency vet – how to find one at night and at the weekend
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- Injured swan or duckFound an injured swan, duck or goose – what to do?
- Cat hit by a carCat hit by a car or found at the roadside – what to do?
- Abandoned animal foundFound an abandoned animal – what to do?
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