Hedgehogs in autumn and winter: hibernation without disturbance

Hedgehogs spend the cold months asleep, and the weeks before that eating as much as they can. What you do in a garden in autumn and winter can help with both. It can also, with the best intentions, go wrong: a tidy-up that lifts a leaf pile, a bonfire built a week early, or a peek into a hedgehog house in January.

This page is based on Hedgehog Street pages opened on 14 November 2026: Hibernation, their hibernation information post, found a sick or injured hedgehog? and bonfire night safety. Hedgehog Street is run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. What to put in the dish, and how a hedgehog house is built, are in hedgehog houses and what to feed.

When they hibernate

Hedgehog Street says hedgehogs usually hibernate from October or November through to March or April. It is not a single long sleep. They say individuals often move nesting sites during hibernation, so one can sometimes be seen out and about, and that in mild winters hedgehogs can remain active well into November and December.

So a hedgehog in your garden in mid-November is not, by itself, a sign of trouble. What matters is how it looks and behaves, which is covered below.

Autumn: help them build reserves

Hibernation runs on the fat a hedgehog built up over the summer and autumn. Hedgehog Street’s hibernation page says eating enough beforehand is vital, and that supplementary feeding can be important at this time. Their feeding page adds that in cold or dry spells the insects and worms they rely on become scarcer in gardens.

The food itself does not change with the season: meat-based pet food or a high-meat hedgehog food, and a shallow dish of water, as set out on the feeding page. No milk, no bread.

When to wind the food down

Do not stop on a date. Hedgehog Street’s hibernation information says hedgehogs need to keep eating right up to hibernation, so keep feeding until they stop taking the food. After that, they suggest putting out a few dry biscuits, because they keep longer. If the biscuits are taken, or the weather turns mild, start feeding again, because a hedgehog may have woken.

Keep water out through the winter as well. A dish of fresh water costs nothing, and it is part of what Hedgehog Street suggests for a healthy hedgehog that is still about.

Dry food needs to stay dry and sealed between uses, the same as bird seed. The containers and the rodent problem are covered in storing bird food.

Do not disturb a hibernating hedgehog

Hedgehog Street is direct about this: any disturbance during hibernation can be extremely dangerous. Waking up uses energy reserves that the hedgehog needs to get through the winter and to wake properly in spring.

In practice:

• Leave hedgehog houses closed. Do not lift the lid to check. The time to clean a house is March or April, once you are sure it is empty, as the hedgehog houses guide says.
• Leave leaf piles, log piles and compost heaps alone through the winter. These are the natural nest sites Hedgehog Street prefers to a bought house.
• Be careful with tools. Forking a compost heap or strimming under a hedge in winter is where hidden hedgehogs get hurt. If you must work there, go slowly and look first.
• If you uncover one by accident, put back what you moved as gently as you can and leave the area. If you are worried, or it looks injured, use the help section below; that is our suggestion, not a Hedgehog Street rule.

Bonfires

A pile of garden waste looks, to a hedgehog, like a ready-made nest. Hedgehog Street’s bonfire advice is:

• Build bonfires only on the day of burning.
• If that is not possible, move and rebuild the pile on the day, which will discourage any hedgehogs that are there.
• Put a hedgehog-proof fence around large or commercial bonfires until they are lit.

The same thinking applies to any heap of prunings left over winter. If it has sat there for weeks, treat it as a possible nest.

When a hedgehog needs help

Hedgehog Street says a hedgehog out in the day could be a warning sign that all is not well, though a healthy one nesting or feeding may be out briefly. The signs they list as needing help are:

• staggering around, or lying still when it is not in a nest;
• flies around it;
• spreading out in the sun, which they call “sunbathing” and link to hypothermia;
• hoglets out alone, squeaking.

If you see those, their advice is to pick the hedgehog up with gardening gloves or a towel, put it in a box indoors with a well-wrapped hot water bottle underneath (hot tap water, not boiling), with room to move off it, cover it gently with an old towel or fleece, and offer meaty cat or dog food and water. Then call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801 for advice. That number is theirs, not this website’s.

A small hedgehog seen late in autumn may also need help. Hedgehog Street’s hibernation information gives a guide for that, and it is better taken from them, or from a call to the number above, than from us. A healthy-looking hedgehog that is only out at night is, in their words, best left in the wild with food and water.

A garden that works in winter

The gardens that get hedgehogs through winter are the ones that are connected and a bit untidy. A gap in the fence lets them reach the leaf pile next door; see hedgehog highways. Leaf litter, log piles and a compost heap are what a wildlife-friendly garden describes, and they feed insects in spring too.

Should I stop feeding hedgehogs in winter?

Not on a fixed date. Hedgehog Street suggests feeding until the food stops being taken, then leaving a few dry biscuits and restarting if they are eaten or the weather turns mild. Keep water out.

Can I check whether a hedgehog is in the house?

Not by opening it. Hedgehog Street says disturbance during hibernation can be extremely dangerous. A twig across the entrance shows whether something has passed. Clean the house in March or April once it is empty.

I saw a hedgehog out in December. Is it ill?

Not necessarily. Hedgehog Street says they move nests during hibernation and can stay active in mild winters. If it is out in daylight, staggering, lying still, sunbathing or has flies around it, follow their help steps and call 01584 890801.