HEDGEHOGS IN CAPTIVITY

From time to time we get hogs that have been "kept a s pets "--this is totally illegal -- the only hogs in secure gardens must be ones which cannot be released to the wild -- the "non returnables ".HEDGEHOGS are dirty /smelly and designed to walk up to 4 miles a night--they have a very varied diet they like to root and scruff about and be active --they can never be properly tamed and will always want to be wild !! HOGS often come to us when people have realised how difficult they are to keep and then w e have the hard task of trying to make them wild again .Our latest addition PUDDIN -- seems to like people too much and w enow have the problem of sending him out on a soft release where he can be weaned off human contact AND INTRODUCED TO A PROPER hog diet .OUR AIM as a rescue is whenever possible to return to the wild and most of our hogs do this -- the rise in AFRICAN PYGAMY hogs seems to have encouraged some people to try to tame wild hogs and this is a big mistake --please join us in doing all we can to keep our native british hedgehogs safe and in educating the public how they can help

Great post . After speaking to rescue people , over wintering sick hogs is hard work !

I think this is a great post tooo , I wonder if there is many people that keep as pets .?

Fab post Helen. To keep any animal native to our country is illegal. I don't think very many people understand about this law.

xoxox

I think more should be done to raise awareness of the differences between Wildies and APH, someone on my twitter posted a picture of a hedgehog they passed on their way home one night (When the weather was freezing may i add) and the photo isn't clear, but I think that picture looked like an aph, what you could see of its underside looked white. It clearly never occurred to them that this could have been an APH, many people don't know they even exist here

When we hold our fundraisers, we have our boards regarding the Wildies but take along some of my APH - that way we can show them the difference as well.

Have to admit to being a little stumped the other day when somebody was asking the difference between an APH and a Tenrec - they thought they had a tenrec when in fact it was an APH!

Hayley found a APH on the road so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was a APH , I no that was one of the wilde rescues concerns that APH would be just put outside when no longer wanted due to lack of research .x