Spikey Critters Hedgehog Care Blog

I would just like to say Thank You very much to Rachel, Jenny & David and Nina for their donations of cat food recently .... I really appreciate all of your help ♥

We have taken in another hoggie here .... one from my garden that I had not seen before (no trace of any marking at all on his bottom)

We have named him Dougal .... he was long and thin, so quite underweight for his size and has done well to come through hibernation.

Dougal is eating all of his food and so far his sample is clear. I will check his samples regularly, but hopefully he can be released again very soon .... once he is in better shape ♥

Spikey Critters Hedgehog Care shared Hérissons's photo.
HEDGEHOG AWARENESS INFO - PLEASE SHARE

Fencing and netting ... either garden netting, chicken wire, sports netting for goal posts, even garden twine can all cause problems for hedgehogs. Not only can they cause very serious injuries but the hedgehog can even die .... either from the injuries sustained or through starvation/dehydration.

Please make sure your garden in safe ♥

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Lots of hoggie huffing going on in my garden late last night again, but I couldn't see them to identify ..... no doubt the female was Grace again though :-)

Tunip will be going back home again tonight ..... so good luck Tunip and stay out of trouble ♥

I will also be able to put some more out into the soft release pens tonight too, yippee :-)

aww good news .x

Not liking the fence post though .x

Has to be there to actually show the potential dangers x

SUNDAY SUNDAY

Oh the sweet smell of the garage this morning --well sweeter and tidier and joy of joys EMPTIER -- what a result eh .all hogs accounted for and well --three more bath s done hoggers ok and mrs bitey seems to like her new home and didnt attack this morning -- has the world turned upside down or what --!!!

I have heard back from both Nieve and Kenny's families to say that they are both sticking around and both using their hedgehog houses that they were released in which is fabulous news and I am really pleased :-)

I have found that the hedgehogs in my garden really like the same model of hoggie house too, made by Chapelwood, although nothing can be guaranteed it is certainly the most popular one so far.

Two more hoggies out into the pre-release pens, so two less to muck out today .... although 2 more coming in tonight which are not coming in for care but just to be rehomed after being over-wintered by another carer, so they will only be here for a few days at most :-)

I have just finished checking Dougal's sample and sadly there is lungworm larvae in it .... he will be starting his course of treatment in a few minutes and will be having B&B here for the next few weeks :-(

I was surprised that nothing has shown in previous samples as he wasn't gaining the amount of weight I would have expected but as all internal parasites require different medication I was unable to treat him until I knew exactly what he had.

HEDGEHOG AWARENESS - PLEASE SHARE

Hedgehog love making their home in a compost heap ..... please take care when taking any compost from the heap .... you would not believe just how many hedgehogs are seriously injured and killed in this way each year.

Thank You ♥

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The two new boys arrived last night, their names are Harry and Shimmie ..... I have checked samples for them both this morning and sadly Shimmie has some lungworm larvae .... so he will be joining Dougal for his B&B for the next couple of weeks or so :-(

Harry is fine so he will be going off to his new home very shortly.

Good luck Harry and stay safe ♥

Here are a few pics of Harry just before he left for his new home ♥ —

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Cheeky Harry .... just before leaving for his new home

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Harry just before leaving for his new home ... he will be meeting his new girlfriend Nieve, who was rehomed last week to the same garden, later on tonight so hopefully he will stick around

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Lots of huffing in the garden again last night .... the female was Grace but still not managed to identify her boyfriend .... he's good looking whoever he is .... my money is still on it being Humphrey but hopefully one day I will be able to find out :-)

Dougal and Shimmie both doing ok and gaining weight. Dougal has finished the first part of his worming treatment now and Shimmie will have his last injection tonight .... then we have to wait for 10 days and repeat the treatment.

Will try and get some pics of Shimmie either today or tomorrow for you ♥

New little guy just come in via the local Vets.

Apparently he was found in an empty pond and the finders don't know how long he has been there :-(

He is in a pretty bad way .... very cold and flat.

He is currently warming up and I will give him some more fluids in a few hours time .... the Vets did have him on a covered hot water bottle and had already given him some sub-cutaneous fluids, so they everything they could initially.

The odds are really stacked against him at the moment and so needs a lot of positive vibes and prayers sending his way.

I am going to call him Wills as he was found in Willesley ♥

Well Wills has made it through the night and he is looking much better, but still not really out of the woods yet.

Once he warmed up he was able to curl up and he has also eaten a little food this morning :-D

So fingers still crossed for him but things looking much more hopeful for him than they were when he arrived ♥

Wills is still doing quite well ..... he has been up and about today .... which is amazing considering he was totally collapsed when he came in last night.... he has been eating for himself too :-)

I managed to get a poo sample from him a little while ago and have just finished checking it ......... he has some lungworm in there so will commence treatment for that ...... he is already on antibiotics as well as he has a little bit of a snuffly nose.

Still keeping everything crossed for him ♥

All the new kids Dougal, Shimmie and Wills are doing fine.

I managed to release a couple of the hedgehogs that came in from my garden last night too.

The next wave of releases will take place on Monday night, after the bank holiday amongst them will be Joey, Kristian, Bobby, Ashby and all being well Eden .... I will try and take a pic of him before he bids you all farewell :-)

That will then leave me just with just 6, yippee!

Cheeky Shimmie Smimwell .... he is half way through is treatment and will soon be able to go back to the wild and meet up with Harry, Nieve, Tilley and hopefully a few more hoggies at his new home ♥

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HEDGEHOG AWARENESS - PLEASE SHARE

I know a lot of people use the ground feeder cages to allow smaller birds in and keep the larger birds out ..... but this is what happened to one hungry hedgehog recently :-( This is not an isoloated incident as I have heard others mention this in the past too!

Fortunately this hedgehog was found and rescued in time, so all ended well, but it could have easily been a very different story.

What happens is the hedgehog tries to go through the cage to get to any bird food that is in there .... gets stuck and is unable to reverse back out due to their spines ...... and as the cage is made of metal there is absolutely no give at all. The same thing applies to similar garden fencing .... I have known hedgehogs become stuck in that and they have needed to be cut free.

If you want to keep some birds away from the bird food then please think of another solution ♥

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I need your help .....

does anyone know who sells this type of ground feeder protector, which I posted about yesterday?

I have written to Ark Wildlife, CJ Wildlife and the RSPB asking them to highlight the potential problem. If you know of any other companies that sell it or who could help raise awareness/spread the word, please comment below and if poss let me have the link to their fb page.

Thank You ♥

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Lots of activity in the garden tonight already ....

Grace came out about half an hour ago and I could hear her munching away.

Joey who is in one of the soft release pens was making odd calling noises, checked him and he is OK ... he's not showing any signs of stress but just being vocal.

I could hear rustling in another corner of the garden but couldn't tell who that was.

We also have a new visitor that turned up last night ... who my Hubby has decided to call Mr McHenry 8-) He turned up 10 minutes after Grace and he can't half move ..... I don't think food is what he had on his mind

Now lots of huffing coming from the corner of the garden where Grace lives!

I didn't expect to see much activity here tonight as its so cold and miserable.

SATURDAY SCRUBBERS

thanks to ace scrubber pat who has done a mammoth job on the cages again-- it is such a relief to get them deep cleaned .Also to helen and paul for their support and taking more hogs to their fabulous garden for release .
NEWS JUST IN -- little october back from foster will have to stay awhile as he clearly has a major disiblity -- and the cutest face ever /Our first adult female of the year ha s been admitted looks like a possible slight strimmer or car graze but she isnt in a good way and as she is possibly pregnant we will treating her as such with minimal interevention. Got her in a quiet cage lots of bedding -- but wont release her in such a weakened state with the chance of her carrying alitter -- watch this space
and we play the waiting game w eve called her MRS MAY in honour of the season and she looks like a n experienced mum to us .

Kermit is going on his way again tonight after treatment for roundworm and initially ringworm. Many thanks to special people for advice, for treating and for enabling Kermit to go where he needed. You all know who you are

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