How To Attract & Encourage A Hedgehog Into A Hedgehog House

“Can I put food and bedding into this? Ours has been living under a paving stone against a wall. How can i introduce him to his new abode?“

(Source: Amazon)

1. Avoid feeding mealworms of other high-calorie foods.
   • Prefer rather to buy Spikes Hedgehog Food, formulated for keeping wild hedgehogs in good health.
2. Hay & leaves in the nest chamber – especially if you are making the hedgehog comfortable before releasing into the wild.
   • It’s not uncommon to find hedgehogs stay in this house even all year round.
   • (However, don’t get discouraged because some will prefer to sleep in the hedge under a pile of leaves, or even in a cardboard box for as long as 2 years.)
   • If the home is sheltered by trees, bushes or large plans and away from the wind, you’re likely to have success.
   • Some prefer to live in the hedge. One hedgehog even favoured a cardboard box & lived in it for 2 years!
   • All are well sheltered by greenery & facing away from prevailing weather.
3. Use torn strips of newspaper for bedding and perhaps hay in the bed chamber.
   • Leave some food in the entrance or buy a tunnel extension to avoid cats eating it.
   • Locate at the bottom of the garden under some shrubs – doorway facing towards the fence.
   • Feed hedgehogs in a hand-made feeding station not in the house. Squirrels could come to have a go at the food, but they usually do so in the early morning – whereas if you feed the hedgehogs at night, you avoid this.
4. Make the house convenient for the hedgehog to find i.e. where they currently rest.
   • Put some bedding down in the nest box and dry hedgehog food in the entrance.
   • You needn’t bother with the bedding – they should gather that themselves from dry leaves. Place the house close to where your hedgehog is currently living. Scatter a thin layer of bedding on the floor of the nest box and a few dry nibbles in the access passage.
   • It will gather its own bedding but you can help by leaving suitable material (dry leaves and grass cuttings, straw, hay) nearby.
   • If the hedgehog doesn’t move in right away – don’t take offence, they just go wherever they prepare. You might find that they return in November.
5. In this case, mealworms inside the entrance for a week and a hedgehog arrived.
   • A second hedgehog arrived shortly after. Every night, feed with mealworms and they will forage for the rest.
   • Wildlife CCTV cameras are great value for money too – you and the family can enjoy hours of together ‘screen time’ without adverts!