{"id":764632,"date":"2026-09-09T03:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764632\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T03:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:34:15","slug":"best-place-to-put-food-for-hedgehogs-without-foxes-and-badgers-taking-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764632\/","title":{"rendered":"Best place to put food for hedgehogs without foxes and badgers taking it"},"content":{"rendered":"

An outdoors expert also warned about some legal restrictions\"A<\/p>\n

You can do several things to support hedgehogs in your garden(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

You may be keen to help out your local hedgehogs by putting a bowl of food out for them to snack on in the garden. But your open-air buffet can also attract other visitors like foxes and badgers.<\/p>\n

An expert has shared how to arrange your garden to best support hedgehogs, and to give them a best chance of getting to your food. Alex Dobson, garden and outdoor space expert at outdoor furnishings supplier Charles & Ivy<\/a>, said the key thing to think about is where you put the food. He said the best approach is to have a dedicated wildlife area where you put any nibbles.<\/p>\n

Create a habitat<\/p>\n

The expert explained: “The best hedgehog-friendly gardens provide habitat rather than trying to feed them. Dedicate some areas of your garden to creating a habitat for them.”<\/p>\n

It’s much better to put any food here rather than in different parts of your garden. Mr Dobson warned: ” Scattering food across the lawn is much more likely to attract a range of larger visitors such as foxes or badgers.”<\/p>\n

Hedgehogs are welcome here<\/p>\n

To create a hedgehog-friendly space, the outdoor expert recommends:<\/p>\n

Gathering fallen leaves into piles, to create natural shelterMake some gaps in your fence, so hedgehogs can make freely between gardensAdd a planter or screened area, to define this spaceCheck any feeding stations and remove any uneaten foodLegal warning<\/p>\n

If larger animals try to push their way into your garden, any deterrence methods you deploy must stay strictly within the law. As Mr Dobson warns: “Gardeners should be careful not to confuse deterring wildlife with harming it.”<\/p>\n

Key legal protections include:<\/p>\n

Badger setts: You must not block a sett entrance, dig around it, or attempt to force badgers out.Active bird nests: You should never remove or interfere with an active nest simply because it’s inconvenient.<\/p>\n

Mr Dobson said: “The safest approach is to make your garden less attractive to unwanted visitors, protect vulnerable plants and use sensible physical barriers, rather than attempting to remove wildlife altogether.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An outdoors expert also warned about some legal restrictions You can do several things to support hedgehogs in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[6738,90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-764632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-gardening","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}