Hedgehogs should not eat dairy, avocado, grapes, raisins, citrus fruits, chocolate, onions, garlic, nuts, seeds, bread, raw meat, raw eggs, processed human foods, or excessive amounts of mealworms (which cause Metabolic Bone Disease). These foods are toxic, hard to digest (like dairy), lack nutrition, or create dangerous imbalances (like too much phosphorus from mealworms/nuts), leading to serious health issues like diarrhea, obesity, or brittle bones.
Toxic foods for hedgehogs include chocolate, caffeine, dairy products, and certain fruits like grapes and citrus. It's essential to avoid these items to ensure your hedgehog's health and well-being. Always consult your veterinarian for specific dietary advice.
What should I never feed a hedgehog? Foods that are toxic to hedgehogs...
The best food that you can leave out for hedgehogs is meat-based cat or dog food, specially made hedgehog food from a wildlife retailer, or crushed up cat biscuits. 'Human food' will upset their tummies and make a mess in your garden.
Hedgehogs mainly eat creepy crawlies
The majority of their diet is made up of invertebrates (or creepy crawlies). We know what they eat from scientific studies that have analysed hedgehog poo or looked in the stomachs of hedgehogs killed on roads.
Insects and other invertebrates are the hedgehog's main natural food source. A typical diet includes: beetles. earwigs.
Hedgehogs require activity to maintain their happiness and health. An exercise wheel, a litter box, a sleeping box, and an eating area constitute crucial components of a hedgehog enclosure. To keep your pet hedgehog engaged, provide them with a variety of tunnels and toys, such as stuffed animals or small balls.
They're also pretty keen on cooked potato or even unsweetened muesli or Weetabix. If you have a problem with cats eating the food, place it under a brick shelter with a gap only big enough for the hedgehog to get through. It's best to leave out some water too, in a shallow dish that's easily accessible.
Provide some fruits, such as apples, plums or pears, and nuts, such as unsalted peanuts or brazils. Leave out root vegetables like carrots, along with some cooked potato. If food isn't eaten overnight, remove anything that will go off and replace it with fresh offerings in the evening.
Hedgehogs can be wonderful pets, and when they bond with you, the connection can feel truly wonderful. Unlike many small animals, hedgehogs can form meaningful bonds with their owners—but it's important to understand that this process takes time and patience. Hedgehogs are not domesticated animals.
This decline is partly due to a loss of natural habitat, which provides both shelter and food for hedgehogs. Fencing, pesticides, garden hazards (like ponds, strimmers and netting) and development and construction also have an impact. And of course, cars are a major threat to hedgehogs, killing thousands each year.
Making Friends With a Hedgehog
Only solid bottom cages are suitable for hedgehogs, any wire bottom cages could trap their legs or rip off toenails. Provide a soft bedding free of dust, such as recycled paper pellets or if you use wood shavings use only kiln dried pine or aspen. Do not use cedar shavings as they could irritate your hedgehog's lungs.
Hedgehogs need a balanced diet with a calcium to phosphorus ratio between 1:1 and 2:1. Foods outside this range can lead to serious health problems like Metabolic Bone Disease. Avoid giving mealworms, sunflower hearts, peanuts, crickets, and beetles.
Make sure that these foods contain almost exclusively meat and, above all, no flour. Hedgehogs also eat minced meat, boiled eggs or scrambled eggs. In any case, avoid seasoning these foods. You can also feed oatmeal and bran.
Major microbial infections associated with hedgehogs include bacteria such as Salmonella and Mycobacteria, as well as some fungal and viral diseases (2). Many disease conditions can cause immunodeficiency in humans; the most notable is AIDS (9).
Do not feed avocados, as they are toxic to your hedgehog. Do not feed raw meats or raw eggs to your hedgehog. Hedgehogs are not able to digest milk. Consumption of milk and milk-based foods may lead to diarrhea.
Never give your hedgehog grapes or raisins as they are reported to be toxic to them. Some fruits, such as bananas and apples, contain a lot of sugar so are best given as rarely as possible as sugar can cause weight gain and even diabetes.
If you see a hedgehog using your garden at night then the best thing to do is nothing! This is a perfectly normal occurrence and you should be happy that your garden can support these declining mammals. If you see a hedgehog out during the day in summer then it could be a mother popping out to find food or water.
Hedgehogs love mealworms, but they're addictive and nutritionally unbalanced. Their high phosphorous and low calcium ratio leads to bone weakening (metabolic bone disease) if fed regularly. Many hedgehogs will gorge on mealworms and ignore healthier foods, causing rapid health decline.
If your hedgehogs come to feed regularly in the early evening (which many do) think about putting out the food as they arrive and staying to watch them feed. Hedgehogs won't mind a quiet human but rats will be much less keen. Then clean up when the hogs are finished. Try cat food.
It is a good idea to include insects as part of your hedgehog's balanced diet. The most popular insects of hedgehogs and hedgehog owners are mealworms, wax worms, silk worms and crickets. Treats can include live, canned or freeze dried crickets, mealworms (only one or two per day), wax worms or other insects.
Just like any other pet, hedgehogs love treats. Waxworms are a favorite with these guys. You can also offer Hedgie some cooked chicken, turkey, or egg. Low fat/high protein wet cat or dog food is also fine, as is the occasional pinky mouse.
Adult Hedgehog Looking Busy - Leave Alone
And nursing mothers may take a break from the nest during the day to go and look for food and water. So, if you see a decent-sized adult out and about looking busy during the day it is probably fine and you should leave it to go about its business.
Hedgehogs are known to be very communicative when it comes to their needs, and often make a low purring sound when they are happy or content.