Feeding urban wildlife including garden birds, hedgehogs and foxes is popular and can benefit individual animals, but requires care to avoid creating dependency, disease spread and wildlife habituation.
Urban wildlife feeding is a popular activity with genuine welfare benefits when done correctly and significant risks when done poorly. Well-maintained feeders providing appropriate foods significantly improve winter survival for garden birds. Hedgehog feeding can support individuals through lean periods. The risks arise from wrong food types causing nutritional disease, from dirty feeders spreading disease, from attracting problematic wildlife densities, and from creating dependency that reduces natural foraging behavior. The benefits outweigh the risks when feeding is done responsibly — appropriate food, clean feeders, and awareness of potential problems allow wildlife feeding to contribute positively to urban animal welfare.