Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue

Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue

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Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue

Sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs - Information page 3

WHAT WE MEAN BY "ORPHANED BABY HOGLETS"....

OUT IN THE DAY means that SOMETHING IS WRONG!

We use the word "ORPHANED" to describe any babies who have been found to be orphaned (lost their mother). Although some babies that arrive to us, are not orphaned, but they are sick, and a small minority have left the nest naturally, and then turn out to be OK. The majority that end up in our care are usually orphaned - requiring hand-rearing or very sick - requiring immediate veterinary attention! Baby hoglets that are found late in the year, are known as "Autumn Orphans", and are unlikely to survive the Winter on their own, including those who leave the nest naturally. These are babies born in September, October, November and even December! ALL hedgehogs need to be at least 600 g. to survive the Winter successfully - they need enough fat-reserves to hibernate. Those smaller than this weight, need caring for and feeding up during the Winter, then released during the following Spring. Winter care of rescued hoglets (please click!).

If you find a baby hoglet late in the year, please contact us as soon as possible (numbers below), and if possible, search for the rest of the litter - they won't be far away.

The majority of the hogs we take in during the Summer and Autumn/Christmas appear to be young or VERY young (baby) hedgehogs. Sometimes, we receive whole families (litters), occasionally with their mother! Many of these are below the weaning age, and therefore require hand-rearing. Some we receive have gone without food more than a day, these very hungry hoglets are cold and squealing loudly for food!

They are kept at a constant warmth - if necessary in an Incubator and given a clean "blanket" to snuggle into, plus a woolen "hoglet" to make them feel they have company. We feed all the babies on PetAg Esbilac milk-replacer (by syringe if too young or weak to feed by themselves). We stopped using goats milk a number of years ago, now - as we found that baby hedgehogs absolutely thrive on Esbilac - it is, without a doubt, the best and closest to mothers milk that they can be given! (Old method was - using Goats milk (with vitamin drops added)/and goats colostrum.) They all require feeds every 2 - 3 hours, day and night, some even more so (depending on the hoglet's health)! The amounts of each feed increased by each week. Birth sites include nests in flower-beds and under sheds, and at birth, the babies are born naked, blind and deaf, weighing only approx. 12 - 24 g. The first spines at birth are soft and white, these are present within the first day - and are quickly joined (about 36 hours later) by the harder, dark-coloured ones.

At about 3 - 4 weeks old they should have their full set of brown spines and they begin making their first foraging trips out with their mother, (only around 2 - 4 weeks later, they leave the nest and their mother forgets about them!). At 6 weeks, they should weigh 10-times birth weight (approx. 120 - 240 g.), and this is the peak weaning point.

As early as only 2 - 3 weeks old, many hoglets are ready to start lapping what is called "glop". This is a 50:50 half-way liquidised mix of mashed-up puppy food with either Esbilac milk-replacer or Goats milk/colostrum with vitamin drops added (old method we used to use). We always know when a hoglet is ready, because they then like to lap the milk, rather than take it from a syringe; however, we continue some syringe-feeds on the milk even until he/she is weaned, keeping the right balance. Also, when the teeth first appear (at approx. 3 weeks old) each hoglet is given an initial dose of wormer, followed by subsequent doses. At peak weaning time (6 wks.), we begin to also offer them a "mini-meal" of solid hedgehog food, (either Spike's Dinner or chicken-based cat/dog food) - cut up into tiny, managable pieces, and water to drink, as well as the weaning glop. By now, they have grown their "skirt" of hairs, around the outside of the spiney area, and look like miniature versions of the adults.

By approximately 6 - 7 weeks, glop and Esbilac/colostrum up to here; thenafter, they no-longer need syringe milk feeds or glop. If the hoglet(s) are well this is withdrawn altogether, and they eat larger meals of the solid hedgehog food (with vitamin drop added), with water to drink. In the wild, by that age, they are completely weaned and leave the nest.

Hedgehogs are almost totally Nocturnal - they are active only at night, from dusk, onwards, and spend the daylight hours asleep. So, if you find one out in the day, SOMETHING IS WRONG! If you find just one, please search the area for others - the average litter-size is 4 or 5. Very sick hogs/ hoglets found by members of the public, are found wondering (and often wobbling) about in daylight, either in their gardens or on the road - which of course, puts them at even greater risk!

Sick hedgehogs can be found at ANY time of the year - yes, those we take in includes baby hoglets even at Christmas or in January!

If you find an orphaned/sick baby hoglet, please, wearing a pair of gardening gloves, pick the poor baby hedgehog up and carefully put him/her in a small cardboard box. Orphaned/sick baby hedgehogs and those in shock, need WARMTH. Within the bottom of the box, place a hot water-bottle, well wrapped in a towel....obviously, the hedgehog placed on top of the heat-source, not underneath it. Then, phone us as soon as possible! We have two main numbers - 01455 614 013 and 07748 26 51 62. This covers quite a wide area, but if you are outside these numbers' area, please give your telephone number, so we can call you back as soon as possible with a contact number and address for your area. Whereever is possible, someone will come to collect the hedgehog - although it is very appreciated when callers kindly bring them to us / or take them to a linked-up carer.

If you can't get hold of anyone the first time you call, try again a bit later on - because, it is likely the Rescuer will have been called out, or someone is already calling, simultaneously.

You are, of course, welcome to contact us again at a later date, to find out how your rescued prickly friend is getting on. Our aim is to save as many hedgehogs as we can! But, sadly, we can't save them all - some are just too weak or sick to survive, although we always TRY OUR VERY BEST TO HELP! The most vulnerable are the tiny babies - when found orphaned, they require warmth and food, very quickly!

He/she is likely to be infested with fleas and/or ticks. If so, DON'T PANIC! Hedgehog fleas are a species in their own right; they are not dog or cat fleas, and won't stay on a dog or a cat. Ticks are the small bluish-grey "nodules", which seem to be most commonly found around the eyes and behind the ears. Fully-gorged ticks will be about the size of a pea. Over the years, we have received some very bad cases, whereby the poor hog is absolutely covered in ticks - this is dangerous to an already badly dehydrated hedgehog. The easiest (and least messy) method of removing ticks, is to grip the body of the tick with a pair of tweezers, then turn anti-clockwise, until the mouthparts lose their grip. DO NOT PULL from behind, otherwise the mouthparts will be left embedded in the skin, and will cause infection. Another method is by smothering each tick in vaseline or cooking/olive oil. Removal of ticks can be very difficult and time-consuming, and is best left to the Rescuer you have called out; it's always a race against time to save very sick hedgehogs!

We hope at the end of this Website to list as many Rescuers contacts as we can, including those already on our Membership.

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Hogarth's / Spikey's Hedgehog Rescue