25/10/2026
Every year there's some stuff about hedgehogs and pumpkins. 🙄
Pumpkingate - non-peer reviewed unscientific study below from Hedgehog Bottom Rescue - worth reading for the laugh and to combat misinformation 🦔. Hedgehogs do not die in droves near Pumpkin farms.
While concentrated pumpkin juice does cause a mild laxative effect in hedgehogs and if they eat too many bugs off a pumpkin they might accidentally ingest some of the pumpkin and get a touch of looseness, they don't really eat plant matter so it is unlikely to cause a problem. At this pre-hibernation time it is better that there are no problems at all so we usually ask people to place them 12"/30cm off the ground and dispose of them by eating or composting.
Squirrels will eat them and as far as I know that's fine although I know nothing about anything except hedgehogs. Pumpkin is very highly unlikely to cause any problems. See the non-scientific but amusing study below. Pumpkin should be disposed of appropriately it is a non-native fruit and makes an awful mess.
PUMPKINGATE!
The results are in!
3 days, 30 chunks of pumpkin, 10 intestinally healthy hedgehogs of varying ages. Closely monitored, with Buscopan at the ready just in case.
Night 1
1 chunk was partly eaten then most, if not all, regurgitated
6 chunks were pooed on
the rest were completely ignored
Night 2
1 chunk nibbled along one edge then shoved in a corner.
2 chunks pooed on
1 chunk dumped in the water bowl
the rest completely ignored
Night 3
4 chunks pooed on
1 chunk suspected peed on
the rest ignored
The hedgehog that ate the chunk on the first night, and nibbled the edge on the second, has not pebbledashed the walls of his cage, not even left little splats. His poo is solid.
Conclusion.
Hedgehogs prefer to use pumpkins as a toilet.
Thanks to Stephanie Knowles and Gill Lucraft for this post which I have shared
