Snuffle Lodge Hedgehog Rescue

Snuffle Lodge


All outdoor hogs are now awake, even Cher and Leigh who had a very lengthy lie-in this Spring. Lots of snorting going on between the females sharing pens (and yes, they are females - we have triple-checked !) so it's pretty noisy at night-time. Hopefully that should change with a few releases over the next day or two, with Robyn (and possibly Leigh) going home today, Jessie getting the freedom of Snape Wood tonight, and Edwina off to Edwinstowe tomorrow. We also hope to get Kim and Cher away this week, touch wood

aw, hope the spring is finally here for them.x

Grubs has sailed off to Chesterfield where he will be released into an ideal nature reserve backing onto the finder's garden. He weighed a sizeable 1100g, a considerable improvement on the 390g juvenile who arrived here in November last year. Grubs will receive supported feeding and his hedgehog house for the first few days but we don't reckon he'll be hanging around - we reckon he has the taste of lurve...

Aww, go Grubs!!

That's Tiggy and Cecil in outside pens (separate of course). Just beat the rain. Tiggy was just a smidge under 600g, not unsurprising given she has hibernated most of the winter, whilst Cecil, still missing a few prickles, obviously remembered life outside as he was soon crashing about. That just leaves Hector indoors now.

Aww, lovely news.x

That's Joan and Millie off into the sunset (well, Wollaton anyway). We wager that Millie will be off quicker than a rat up a drainpipe, but Joan may just hang about in the finder's garden for a while.

Hehe, aww.x

We've had to let Cecil go tonight, probably a week earlier than we would have liked, due to the considerable stress he was experiencing in trying to get out of his pen, to the point he was starting to hurt himself. The good news is that before the pen was lifted we were able to grab and inspect him and encouragingly there was considerable prickle re-growth in the areas where previously he had been prickle-less. We gave him one more dose of Ivermectin as a precaution and popped him back in the now open pen. Ideally we would have liked him to return to his finders, but sometimes circumstances mean we have to put the animal's welfare first, as was the case here. We wish him bon voyage, although he may just hang around if we're lucky.

Aw, bless him. Good luck Cecil!x

Cecil = long gone ! The call of the wild beckoned strongly it seems... Happy sow-bothering, you little monkey

Long-time garden resident Gaga has also upped sticks and left for pastures new after hibernating here for the winter. We wish him well too.

Aww, good luck little hoggies.x

Snuffle Lodge

It's late arriving here, but at last the comforting sounds of snuffalicious courtship going on in the Lodge garden - sounds like a steam train pulling out of the station, courtesy of the female rebuffing an amorous boar... wonder who's involved and whether it's any of 'our lot'

Love these posts

New admission, Lily, 492g, from Keyworth with very laboured breathing, which looks to be caused by an injury to the left side of her face. We've ruled out parasites so far, but prognosis is extremely guarded at the moment - every exhalation is enormous effort, sadly.

Oh poor little thing. Really hope they can help her.x

so sad .x

New admission, Spud, 335g from Newark found 'sunbathing' and collapsed. Finders popped him on heat and brought him over, by which time he had livened up. He drank about a gallon of rehydration fluid and is now tucked up on a heatpad.

Oh bless him. Good luck little Spud!x

Spud is doing rather well - 30g increase, still drinking gallons of rehydration fluid, still biting me at every opportunity. He's certainly more active after spending virtually the last 24 hrs conked out on the heat pad

Aww, bless him. Go Spud! x

Whilst Spud continues to pile the weight on we're still very concerned about his behaviour, which definitely points towards thorny-headed worms which we had the misfortune to witness deaths by last year. Here's hoping we've caught it in time...

Near disaster averted at a local stable, where a mother and three newborns were discovered nesting in a huge pile of horse manure in the corner of one of the sheds. The discovery was made during mucking out. The finder picked up mum and babies and took them home together - thankfully the smell of horse manure masked the human scent, and mother was witnessed suckling the hoglets an hour or so later - we reckon from the description they may only have been born today. Janet Peto from Hedgehog Welfare is picking them up from the finder and will keep them together outdoors, undisturbed by humans. If you find a nest always always always 'do not disturb' until you have taken advice. Thankfully this looks to have a happy ending.

Aww, hope Spud improves. Poor little ones. Lucky escape from being scooped up onto the muckheap there.