Found a Baby Hedgehog? What to Do — A Finnish Guide

Every summer, people find a tiny hedgehog alone in the garden, on a path, or out in daylight — and their first instinct is to scoop it up and help. Sometimes that instinct saves a life. Just as often, it accidentally orphans a healthy baby whose mother was only metres away. This guide will help you tell the difference, and show you exactly what to do — the Finnish way, and within Finnish law.

First, the most important rule

In Finland the hedgehog (siili, Erinaceus europaeus) is a protected species under the Nature Conservation Act (9/2023), and taking one into care requires the permission of the Finnish Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, LVV). In practice this means one thing: do not "rescue" a hoglet on impulse. Phone a wildlife expert first — before you pick it up — and let them tell you whether it truly needs help. A single small hedgehog on its own is often not an emergency, and wildlife hospitals see many healthy babies brought in by well-meaning people, taken from mothers who would have come back. The first step is always: look, don't grab.

Is this baby actually in trouble?

Baby hedgehogs (siilinpoikaset) leave the nest at about 3 weeks old and then follow their mother for another 5–6 weeks before she weans them, usually in early August. Their eyes stay closed until around two weeks of age. During the weeks after they start venturing out, a youngster being out and about is completely normal — a healthy, independent one behaves like a small adult: it hisses, curls into a tight ball, and moves briskly. Leave it be.

A hoglet genuinely needs help if:

• It is out alone in the daytime, lying still for long stretches — hedgehogs are nocturnal, so a baby motionless in the open is a red flag.
• It is cold to the touch, limp, or wobbling.
• It is squeaking or peeping persistently in the open, like a distress call, with no adult nearby.
• It is circling, staggering, or shows other movement problems.
• There are flies or fly eggs on it — fly eggs look like tiny grains of rice. This is an emergency.
• Its eyes are still closed and it is out of the nest. A hoglet this young (under about two weeks) cannot survive away from its mother.
• Several babies are wandering together with no mother — something has very likely happened to her, for example a road death. A group on the move almost always needs help.
• From September onwards it is small — under about 600 g. Early-summer babies weighing only 120–350 g are usually healthy poults, but by autumn an underweight hedgehog will not survive hibernation without help.

Could the mother come back for it?

Very possibly — and it is worth thinking through before you decide anything. Mother hedgehogs move their babies one at a time if a nest is disturbed, flooded, too hot, or feels unsafe, and a pup can be dropped or left behind mid-move. A displaced baby is not automatically an orphan; she may return for it.

Two things to know first. Handling it will not make her abandon it — the "human scent" fear is largely a myth for hedgehogs. But do not disturb the nest itself more than you must: in the first days after birth, heavy disturbance can make a mother abandon or even eat her litter. If you ever need to return a baby to a nest, use a spoon or gloved hands rather than bare fingers, then cover the nest back up and withdraw.

Whether to wait for her comes down to temperature and timing. A newborn cannot keep itself warm and chills within the hour — cold is the clock. And the mother is nocturnal, so she only returns at dusk or after dark, never in daylight.

Give her a chance if the baby is warm, wriggling, rooting or squeaking, found near a known nest, and it is evening or night. Then: warm it first anyway (a wrapped warm-water bottle, 20–30 minutes) so it does not chill while it waits; place it in a shallow, open box she can reach into, right where you found it or as close to the nest as you safely can, with a towel-wrapped warm bottle for heat; withdraw completely and watch from a distance through the evening and night — her active window — for up to a couple of hours. If she has not come, or the baby cools or weakens, switch to care.

What to do right now (before help arrives)

A newborn hoglet's biggest killers are cold and dehydration, and they set in fast. While you arrange proper care:

• Warm it — this is the priority. Fill a bottle with warm, not hot, water, wrap it in a towel, and lay the hoglet on top inside a high-sided box. A cold baby cannot digest food and must be warmed before anything else. Reheat the bottle before it cools, so the box never turns cold.
• Keep it contained, dim and quiet. Use a deep cardboard box or plastic tub with a towel on the base (not a loose fluffy blanket that toes can catch in) and air holes. Dim light and a quiet room calm a frightened wild animal. Handle it with thick gloves.
• Do NOT give milk. Ever. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant; cow's milk causes diarrhoea and stomach pain and can slowly kill them. This is the single most common fatal mistake.
• Do not try to hand-feed a tiny baby yourself. A cold, dehydrated newborn needs special rehydration fluid before food, given by someone who knows how. Feeding too early, or the wrong thing, can kill it.

If the animal is an older, weaned youngster that is simply thin and hungry (not a closed-eyes newborn), a little meat-based cat food — not fish — or soaked dry cat food and a shallow bowl of water are safe. But for a tiny baby, warmth plus a phone call is the whole job.

Who to call

Call before you move the animal, and tell them how many babies there are, whether the eyes are open, roughly how big it is, where you found it, and its condition:

• Eläinklinikka Saari — (06) 321 7300. We treat injured and orphaned hedgehogs in cooperation with Nordic Wildlife Care. Bring the animal to the clinic at Gerbyntie 18, Vaasa and we will give first aid and arrange onward care where needed.
• Nordic Wildlife Care — Markku Harju — 040 412 1514. Experienced wildlife rehabilitator who takes in and raises orphaned and injured hedgehogs.
• Korkeasaari Wildlife Hospital (Villieläinsairaala), Helsinki — Finland's national wildlife hospital, which treats injured and orphaned wild animals and gives advice for your specific situation. See korkeasaari.fi.
• SEY Suomen eläinsuojelu — maintains a national network of volunteer wildlife helpers who can point you to someone local. See sey.fi.
• The Finnish Supervisory Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, LVV) — for the permission needed to take a protected animal into care.

Why it's worth the effort

A young hedgehog's first winter is brutal: at least 30%, and in bad years up to 80%, of hoglets die before spring, most of them simply too thin to survive hibernation. In Finland a hedgehog needs roughly 450–600 g to last the long hibernation, and babies born late in the summer often cannot build enough fat reserves in time. An underweight youngster found in autumn is exactly the kind of animal a wildlife carer can bring through the winter and release healthy in spring. Hedgehog numbers are declining across Europe — in October 2024 the IUCN raised the European hedgehog's status to Near Threatened — so every one we get right matters.

The short version

• Don't grab on impulse — a lone healthy baby usually has a mother nearby, and she may come back for a dropped one.
• Warm and wriggly, near a nest, at dusk? Give her a chance to retrieve it. Cold, still, silent, or in daytime? It needs help now.
• Warm it on a wrapped warm-water bottle in a quiet box — cold is the clock.
• No milk. No do-it-yourself feeding of tiny babies.
• Phone Eläinklinikka Saari, Nordic Wildlife Care (Markku Harju, 040 412 1514), Korkeasaari, or SEY before moving it — and remember the LVV permit rule.

When in doubt, make the call before you make a decision. The experts would always rather answer the phone than treat a mistake.