Hedgehog Awareness Week
The 2025 national campaign to help hedgehogs runs from 4 –10 May.
Do you have hedgehogs in your neighbourhood?
Hedgehogs play a vital role in controlling insect populations and are an important part of our ecosystem, but they face growing threats from habitat loss and road traffic.
What can we do?
In our garden, we can feed hedgehogs a variety of foods to support them. They primarily eat insects, worms, and other invertebrates, but can also be offered:
• Cat or dog food (preferably wet food or high-quality dry food)
• Boiled eggs (cut into small pieces)
• Fruits like apples, pears, and berries (in moderation)
• Vegetables like carrots or sweet potatoes (but avoid onions, garlic, and salty foods)
It's important not to feed them milk as it can cause digestive issues. Mealworms are also not recommended for hedgehogs, as they cause calcium deficiency.
Water is essential, so yes, you should leave a shallow bowl of fresh water for them, especially during dry weather. Hedgehogs can become dehydrated, and easy access to water will help them stay healthy.
Putting out any food can attract all sorts of animals, not just hedgehogs but pets or foxes too so consider making your own hedgehog feeding station - see below for further sources of advice.
Have you seen them?
People who have been lucky enough to see hedgehogs in Litchborough have marked their sighting on a map. If you have seen them in your area you might consider helping to understand where hedgehogs are in the UK and where they are missing by marking their location on the Big Hedgehog map – see below.
What more can we do to help?
In addition to mapping hedgehog sightings, people in Litchborough are looking to create a Hedgehog Highway within their village. Carefully designed pathways will enable hedgehogs to find food, mates, and shelter, especially as their natural habitats become fragmented. Gaps in fences, walls, or hedges allow hedgehogs to move freely between gardens or natural spaces. A conveniently placed Hedgehog Highway sign will explain the purpose of these small holes.
To learn more about hedgehogs there are two national charities:
People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES)
and the
British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).
who together run
Hedgehog Street
where you can map your hedgehog sighting
Our thanks to Litchborough Parish Councillor Teresa Cox for alerting us to the plight of hedgehogs and how her Parish is helping them, and to Chris Watts who helped design Litchborough's informative hedgehog leaflet whose words have been incorporated in this post.