Tips & tricks

Your own natural garden as the ideal hedgehog home

There are currently lots of hedgehogs in the gardens.

(Bild: zVg)

Our garden expert Patrizia Haslinger gives tips on how to support the prickly visitors and provide them with a safe home for the winter. But be careful: not every wild animal automatically needs our help, but rather its peace and quiet. 

If you hear rustling in the hedge, snorting and even "smacking" in the autumn garden at dusk, you probably have a prickly garden dweller: hedgehogs are now feeding on reserves for their hibernation - and you can help them!

Create winter quarters
Now is the time to create safe winter quarters for these prickly guests. This is important so that hedgehogs can find sufficient insects and thus remain vital. Only a near-natural garden, or at least a separate area, offers sufficient habitat for this food source - and therefore for the hedgehog itself. I have a few tips for you on how you can support these cute wild animals.

In a hedgehog-friendly garden, there should be a deadwood area.

(Bild: Wenzel Markus/Markus Wenze)

• You can create a great base with a wild fruit hedge. Hedgehogs like to sleep under them during the day, as well as in piles of dead wood and "wild corners".

• If fences reach down to the ground, passages should be created for night-time forays if possible. Approximately 10x10 centimetres are sufficient for this.

• In the fall, leave large piles of leaves in a suitable place and cover them with branches to prevent the wind from blowing them away. Take particular care in spring when the new garden work is due - the hedgehog may still be asleep.

• Please refrain from using chemicals (especially insecticides and fertilizers).

• Native plants and perennials are to be preferred, "weeds" should be allowed. They are also a breeding ground for insects, which in turn can be food for hedgehogs.

• Set up a watering hole in summer if no biotope is available. Ponds, pools and deep water in general should ideally be equipped with an exit aid.

• Please cover cellar drains, shafts or steps - otherwise they could become a trap for the prickly comrades.

By the way: Not every hedgehog is in need of help. Unfortunately, well-intentioned actions by animal lovers sometimes have the opposite effect. Healthy, active hedgehogs (weighing 700 grams or more) are perfectly happy in the wild and should stay outside. Even if you find small hedgehogs (350 grams) now, they are completely healthy and fine - provided they make a vital impression.

A hedgehog-proof water source also has barrier-free access and an exit option.

(Bild: zVg)

Out and about in groups
These are probably hedgehog kids from this summer. They are born here in August and also in September. After around six weeks, they go out in search of food without their mother hedgehog. As the little ones need to build up a fat reserve in a short time, they are sometimes out and about during the day and in groups. A healthy, well-fed hedgehog is pear-shaped: narrow at the front and fat at the back. You can read more about their diet in the story below.

How to recognize hedgehogs that are in need of help
Hedgehog babies (hardly any spines), sick hedgehogs (apathetic, sunken eyes, infested with parasites), injured animals, malnourished animals (sunken flanks, clear indentation behind the head) or hedgehogs that are out and about after the onset of winter or several very cold nights (from November) need help.

Please act immediately, put them in a box with newspaper and keep them warm (e.g. fill a disposable glove with warm water, wrap it in a cloth and place it on top). Contact a vet or a wild animal sanctuary (see info box).

What these wild animals actually eat
Now that the time has come to create a good winter home for these prickly creatures, I would like to clear up a few "misconceptions" in today's article. Contrary to many publications, hedgehogs do not like slugs and snails. They only eat them due to a lack of alternatives - and they shouldn't actually do so. Slugs are parasitic, and these parasites are transferred to the hedgehogs, which can become a deadly vicious circle. Healthy hedgehogs can also cope with this and instinctively eat herbs such as oregano, which contain natural defenses. These cute wild animals feed mainly on ground beetles, worms, insects and small creatures. They only bite into apples to pull out a worm.

Do not feed them milk
You can provide better support by feeding them, but please do it properly: never use milk, leftovers, fruit or vegetables! Hedgehogs are insectivores. Ideally, you should therefore offer the animals mealworms and soldier fly larvae (available from pet shops or online stores). However, dry baby cat food with small grains and a high meat content is also fine. Also provide hedgehogs with a bowl of water (possibly with a box and a small entrance to avoid "fellow eaters" such as cats). And one more thing: even if hedgehogs have no "table manners", their feeding places should always be kept clean.

Patrizia Haslinger is a passionate garden designer and coach. She is also a certified wedding planner. You can find even more information about the gardener at heart on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/the.heartgardener/ and at www.theHeartgardener.at

And here's another blog post about hedgehogs.

Patrizia Haslinger