Hedgehogs and other animals

26th June 2023

Hedgehogs usually travel quite far each night (around 2km!) and this means they can encounter other animals on their journeys. We are often asked about these encounters, whether they are wild animals or pets, so we have provided some information about the types of relationships hedgehogs have with other animals.

Cats

It would be very unusual for a cat to harm a hedgehog. Cats seem to know hedgehogs are spiky and leave them alone, though they do often like to watch what the hedgehogs are getting up to! Cats often try to snaffle food left out for hedgehogs, so the best way to prevent this is to put the food in a feeding station and use tunnels or baffles to keep the cats at bay. A shallow saucer of water at the entrance can also help as cats don’t like getting their paws wet.

Dogs

In contrast to cats, dogs can and have attacked hedgehogs. We recommend keeping dogs on a lead for any late night or early morning garden trips, if you suspect hedgehogs are visiting your garden. If this is not possible then you may need to restrict the hedgehog’s access to your garden, as dogs can unfortunately cause quite nasty injuries to hedgehogs.

Foxes

There have been a couple of studies looking at the relationship between hedgehogs and foxes but without more research we cannot be sure what effect foxes have on hedgehogs. While it may not be all that common, foxes do attack hedgehogs. The injuries inflicted by foxes, typically bites to the legs or possibly face before the hedgehog is able to curl up in defence, can kill them outright or lead to infection and subsequent death.

Hedgehogs and foxes are also likely to compete for food in a given area, as both species make use of the urban and suburban landscape. While foxes and hedgehogs do interact, current evidence suggests that it is unlikely that foxes have a significant impact on hedgehog populations in general.

Badgers

Badgers are the principal natural predator of hedgehogs in the UK, as they are the only creature strong enough to overcome the spiny defences. While predation can and does occur, it’s a natural predator/prey interaction between two species that have been co-existing for several thousand years. Although badger populations have increased significantly in recent years there is little evidence to suggest that badgers are the principal driver of our hedgehog declines.

Badgers and hedgehogs also compete for invertebrate prey including earthworms and beetle larvae, but we believe that where habitat is good, and shared invertebrate prey and suitable nesting sites are common, both species can and do coexist.

Read our full statement on badgers and hedgehogs.

Rats/mice

Rats shouldn’t cause any concern for the hedgehogs themselves, but they often try to take food left out for hedgehogs. People use various tactics to try and discourage rats from their gardens.

One option is to stop putting food out altogether and the rat will eventually move on and find a new feeding spot and then you can resume feeding again. Alternatively, if your hog feeds at a set time every evening, you can put the food out at that time rather than leaving it all night. Another idea is to place food in a shallow saucer with a second saucer over the top, anecdotally only hedgehogs will bump off the upper saucer so it’s worth a try!

We’ve also been told that rats prefer grain/dry food so wetting food for hedgehogs may make it less enticing to rats. Rats also don’t like change, so putting the food at different places in the garden each night may help.

While some may have concerns that a hedgehog highway will also allow rats into the garden however, a rat (unlike a hedgehog!) can easily climb fences to gain access, highway or no highway.