You've found a hedgehog
Don't panic — you've already done the most important bit by stopping. Work through this page from the top. It takes two minutes.
🚨 Does it need help right now?
Yes — pick it up and ring a rescue if the hedgehog is:
- Out and about in daylight — hedgehogs are nocturnal. A hog wandering in the day is nearly always in trouble.
- Lying flat out or "sunbathing" — this is a seriously ill hedgehog, not a relaxed one.
- Wobbling, staggering or going in circles.
- Obviously injured — caught in netting, strimmer wounds, hit by a car, attacked by a dog.
- Covered in flies, or with small white eggs or maggots on it. This is an emergency — it will not survive the day without help.
- A tiny hoglet on its own, squeaking, or with its eyes still closed.
- Small and out in late autumn — under about 450g going into winter and it won't survive hibernation.
🌙 When it's probably fine to leave it
A hedgehog out after dark, moving with purpose, looking plump and untroubled, is just getting on with its evening. Enjoy it and leave it be.
In autumn you may see one busily dragging leaves about in the early evening — that's nest-building, and it's a good sign.
If you're not sure, ring us. We would far rather answer a hundred calls about healthy hedgehogs than miss one that needed us.
What to do, step by step
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Pick it up safely
Use gardening gloves or scoop it up with a folded towel — the spines are sharp but they won't hurt you through a towel. Support it with both hands.
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Put it in a high-sided box
A cardboard box with an old towel or fleece in the bottom, and a lid or a towel over the top with air holes. Hedgehogs are brilliant climbers, so low-sided boxes won't hold them.
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Warm it up — this matters most
Fill a hot water bottle with warm, not boiling water, wrap it in a tea towel and lay it at one end of the box so the hedgehog can move off it if it gets too warm. A cold hedgehog cannot digest food and will not get better until it is warm. Keep it topped up — a bottle that goes cold is worse than none at all.
☀️ Yes — even in summer. This is the step people skip in July, and it's the one that matters most. A poorly hedgehog has stopped regulating its own temperature, so it is usually stone cold to the touch on the warmest day of the year. Feel its tummy: if it's cool, it needs the bottle, whatever the weather says. A warm room on its own is not enough.
The one exception: a hedgehog that's been stuck in full sun and is hot — floppy, panting, flat out on a baking patio. That's heatstroke, and adding heat will make it worse. Move it into the shade, offer a shallow dish of water, lay a cool (not cold) damp towel over it, and ring us straight away. Never plunge a hedgehog into cold water.
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Somewhere quiet, dark and indoors
A spare room or a warm utility room. Not the garage, not the shed, not next to a barking dog. Keep children and pets away — it's a wild animal and it's frightened.
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Offer food and water
A shallow dish of fresh water, and a little meaty cat or dog food. Don't force-feed, and don't worry if it doesn't eat straight away.
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Ring a rescue — today
Call us on [phone number]. If you can't get through, ring your nearest wildlife rescue or any vet — vets will see wildlife free of charge. Tell them roughly how big it is and what you've seen.
Do & don't
✅ Please do
- Keep it warm — before anything else, summer included.
- Use a high-sided box with a towel.
- Offer meaty cat or dog food, or specialist hedgehog food.
- Give fresh water in a shallow dish.
- Note exactly where you found it — we try to release hogs back where they came from.
- Ring a rescue the same day.
🚫 Please don't
- Never give bread and milk. Hedgehogs can't digest lactose — it causes diarrhoea that kills them. This is the single most common mistake.
- Don't bath it or pour water over it.
- Don't put it back out because "it looked better" — a hog found in daylight still needs checking.
- Don't try to remove ticks, maggots or netting yourself — you can do real damage.
- Don't feed mealworms. Hedgehogs love them, but they leach calcium and cause crippling bone disease.
- Don't keep it. Rehabilitation needs medication, weighing and experience — and it's a wild animal that wants to go home.
Ring us
Any time, any question, however daft it feels. If we can't take the hog ourselves we'll find someone who can.
[phone number]
Can't reach anyone locally? The British Hedgehog Preservation Society runs a national helpline on 01584 890801 and can point you at your nearest rescue.