Do Hedgehogs Come Out in the Rain?

“Why do hedgehogs come out in the rain” this is what I’ve been thinking recently. I’m a big fan of wildlife and small facts seem to fascinate me.

Lately, I had a chance encounter with one of these little spikey balls. It all started a couple of weeks ago when it decided to rain nearly every. single. day.

Love them or hate them, the rainy days are here. I’ve been stuck inside for the whole week! It doesn’t matter where I go the rain seems to follow me lately. Some people love the rain, its relaxing rhythmic sound, and for others, it’s nothing but an inconvenience. For me, I’m not a fan.

Recently I’ve been standing in my kitchen and looking out into the garden. We are blessed with a variety of wildlife and being an animal nerd I like to sit and sip my coffee and see what’s going on.

Surprisingly I’ve seen a small hedgehog scurrying around recently. I’m not really familiar with seeing them so I was surprised. It got me thinking do hedgehogs come out in the rain? Surely not, but despite the miserable drizzle, I’ve seen this little guy a handful of times.

There are plenty of animals that love the rain such as frogs, slugs, ducks, etc you get the picture, but I never imagined hedgehogs on that list. I was always under the impression that most animals hate rain just as much as I do. But it seems that despite the cold and uncomfortable feeling that the rain sometimes brings it also brings unique opportunities for certain animals.

Do Hedgehogs Come Out Deliberately When It’s Raining?

I’ve searched the internet for information on this topic for a while and found nothing. Maybe nobody knows for sure how they truly feel but I wanted to find out. I was curious about my newly acquired garden hedgehog. 

I brought the subject up to one of my close friends a few days after seeing my little hedgehog friend. My friend has a wide range of experience with a variety of similar animals including hedgehogs. She actually used to work at a wildlife sanctuary farm. She explained that hedgehogs actually hate wind and rain and the majority of them even hate taking a warm bath.

Usually, hedgehogs in the wild will hide under rocks or seek shelter under anything they can find. Maybe my garden hedgehog was a bit “different”. 

Most things that are cold and water-related are usually a no-go for most hedgies. So it’s safe to say hedgehogs are not a fan of cold weather, especially wind and rain. So why do hedgehogs always seem to come out in the rain?

Hedgehogs See the Rain as an Opportunity

The rain brings with it an unmissable opportunity, which is sometimes overlooked. Food. Getting wet in the pursuit of food is a sacrifice some animals are willing to make. For whatever reason unknown to me, bugs and worms like to come to the surface when it rains. I’ve read many different theories on why this happens and I am still none the wiser as to why it really happens. Hedgehogs seem to have worked out that when it rains it means its food o’clock.

Let’s also not forget slugs! When it rains near my house our paths are covered in snails and slugs it’s often a challenge to avoid stepping on them. It must be like a banquet for hedgehogs that are living near my house. I think in the end it really depends on how bad the weather is a light drizzle might be the perfect opportunity for feeding whilst a torrential downpour could be game over. So in the hedgehog world, I guess you have to pick your battles at the right time. 

Hedgehogs in My Garden

I’ve heard that hedgehogs are known as “The gardener’s friends” because of their nature to eat, worms bugs, and annoying critters that we don’t want crawling around. I certainly welcome my new friend and they’re free to eat as many creepy crawlies as they want!

Anyway to summarize quickly as far as I can see hedgehogs don’t enjoy cold, rainy conditions at all but they utilize these conditions (within reason) to capitalize on the abundance of worms and slugs that become available.

If you know any more information on this topic please leave a comment and let me know. For some reason, there’s been a lack of hedgehog experts recently!

If you enjoyed my short article please check out some of my other hedgehog-related content.

Hedgehog Sneezing, Can hedgehogs Swim?