Snuffle Lodge Hedgehog Rescue

New admission from Sellers Wood, just round the corner - adult female found out during the day - very cold and wobbly, suspected hypothermia. Currently on a heat pad - may just have been washed out of her nest in last night's persistent rain as no obvious injuries.

We are having to revise our estimate for reopening to Monday 5 August 2013 due to continuing illness - sorry for any inconvenience. Rest assured, as soon as we can re-open we will.

Whilst it currently takes us about 100 times longer to do things than normal, we're pleased to announce that Sniffles (one run) and Lucky & Star (another run) are now in pre-release. And, er, Sniffles is actually a boy, thanks very much for asking (oops). Luna has had to be held back from joining his brother Lucky and sister Star, due to not being up to weight and his irritating cough.

The second family bust-up was more to do with space limitations due to growing juvenile bodies, with the Walnut Tree gang, split into two big cages - the two biggest (Tickles, female and Tom, male) have parted company from their two sisters, Tiny and Tilly. All are between 330-380g so are going great guns.

The next singles on the conveyer belt to pre-release will be Lyndy Lou and Fluffy who are both in the high 300s - we're aiming to get them into pre-release at 450g, releasing at around 500g this time of year, which gives them plenty of time to reach optimum weight ahead of their first hibernation.

Meanwhile, there's been two other family break-ups. Minni was miles ahead of his two sisters, Brick and Froch, and after spending a few days in a juvenile cage, he has now shifted to a hutch - he's way over 200g. Brick and Froch are way behind, and we may have to further split these two, as Froch remains very much the runt of the trio

Hear hear - almost all wildlife hospitals are NOT open for public viewing. You should never turn up unannounced - not only is extremely rude, it may end up being a wasted journey (wildlife rehabbers do actually leave their homes from time to time, believe it or not - remember, hedgehogs are mainly nocturnal ), as was the case here. A quick phone call and you won't have a harrassed rehabber, usually with poo in their hair, and a generally dishevelled look, not to mention the smell and state of the house - at least with forewarning we can at least try to make the place look presentable

Hedgehog Bottom
We are a hedgehog hospital and rehab centre. We are not a zoo and we don't have a visitor centre.

We have sick hedgehogs, injured hedgehogs, hedgehogs with transmissible diseases and compromised orphan hedgehogs. All of these animals have to go back to the wild, it's not a petting zoo and we do not make a good day out during the school holidays.

Turning up at the front door with your brood in tow and begging to be let in as you've come so far and the children will be so disappointed as they love hedgehogs, will not get you any results I'm afraid.

If you want to take your children to see native wild animals then I suggest you take a trip to Tiggywinkles which is near Aylesbury. They are a large concern and they have a visitor centre, cafe and museum.

Indoors, Holly and Jack are now turning into fully rounded individuals and will be moved to a much larger indoor cage so they can run around. They never leave each other's side, which is very sweet.

Jay is the other hog of this year's intake still to be indoors - it was literally a coin toss as to whether it should be he or Lyndy-Lou who should go out to pre-release. L-L just won it on grams... Rest assured, Jay will be the next one out.

In the meantime, some catch-up news. Sniffles returned to the wild last night after we established she could not go back to where she came from. She was released here and did not return to her house. Her space has been blagged by Lyndy-Lou who is now a week away from a return herself !

The three that came in together, Brick, Minni and Froch, have had to be separated out due to the huge disparities in size. Milli is the real character of the three, and he lives in the top hutch - he spends all the time watching my every move and snorting and hissing at me during cage cleaning. All three are doing fine, Minni better than his siblings

The Walnut Tree gang, discovered not five minutes from here, are now all fat and contented and sharing a huge run (reunited again after being split up indoors due to their size). Must have taken all of 5 minutes for the run to be wrecked beyond recognition. We also suspect all four are cramming into one hedgehog house together. It's taken them just 24 hours to realise that they shouldn't be eating during the day (helped by my refusal to feed the stragglers who popped out at 10am demanding to be fed)

We're gradually returning to full operation and hope to reopen fully for new admissions in the next few days. Sorry for the continued inconvenience.

Fluffy, the hog with a penchant for shopping at Tesco, Netherfield, is also in an outside run. We'll be looking to get the little fella back to his shopping very soon.

And that leaves our longest 'inmate' Hector, who continues to bravely battle ringworm (we ARE making headway, but it's very slow progress with this one). Hector has been with us since last year, but still has limited mobility. He does get a runaround regularly and once the ringworm is all clear, he will be put into an outside run, with the aim of seeing how he copes with natural obstacles. We suspect he will be with us a while yet, sadly, and there will come a point where we have to make a final determination on his quality of life. At the moment he's happy, healthy-ish (bar the ringworm) and maintaining a constant weight.

Sandy is doing well too, but is developing slowly - we often find this to be the case for orphans with no brothers or sisters, but we are pleased with how he's doing, and he is now putting on around 20g per day, which is double the ideal amount.

Luna has rejoined Lucky and Star and they are also sharing a run together - we're hopeful these can go back to the wild this weekend

Thought it would be nice to reunite Brick and Froch today as the two litter-mates' weights have equalised. Epic fail. Froch took great exception to being reunited with Brick. The reunion lasted 10 minutes and then the two were separated. The winner is Brick who now has a lovely big cage all to her 228g self. Froch returns to the juvenile cage he has called home for the last couple of weeks. Bah - one more extra cage to clean.

Number of hogs trying to get out of their runs, despite only being in them a day or two - too many to count. The Walnut Tree gang and Fluffy are the worst offenders, so have 'had a word' so as not to upset the neighbours with the constant clanging of claws on metal...

Number of hogs who have now got out of their runs after being released - five ! The Walnut Tree gang and Fluffy are now running wild in the Lodge garden. Meanwhile, Jay has gone into pre-release.

All four of the Walnut Tree gang have now left, but bizarrely Fluffy has returned and is now encamped in one of the Walnut Tree gang's hoggy houses - bless him !

Two lovely little female orphans, weighing 91g (Carol) and 86g (Paula) have been picked up from a house in Bulwell - they were very hungry, have been fed and are now tucked up together in a nursery cage on a heatpad. They'll be fed every 3 hours or so (but not during the night - doesn't happen in the wild, so doesn't happen here at Snuffle Lodge either !)

Mass exodus planned today, with Jay and MiniMan returning home, and Lucky, Star and Luna set to be released into a lovely wildlife friendly park in West Bridgford.

Meanwhile, Sandy followed in the now-wild Fluffy's footsteps, by falling a couple of feet from his poorly-secured hutch (slap wrist, Clayts), and snoozing right in the furthest corner of the hogspital. None the worse for wear, apart from a little hungry, the naughty little man has been returned to his hutch. And yes, the door has been secured this time... Thank goodness for prickles which act as very good shock absorbers.

Little Jon has joined his two sisters, Carol and Paula, after been found a staggering three days after those two little munchkins. There was a lovely family reunion and all three are snuggled together. Jon is a little smaller, unsurprisingly, and a little less wise in self-feeding so is getting a helping hand every so often. All three are doing well.

Our first babies of the year, Holly and Jack, have finally made it into pre-release after a prolonged developmental stage from hoglet to juvenile. Thankfully, despite a wobble around the 150-200g mark, both are now fat and healthy and enjoying their new environment. This leaves 7 indoors - the three bairns, Brick & Froch (who should be out within the week), Sandy (still some distance left for this little man) and Hector (whisper it quietly but our longest stay resident may just make it into an outside run very soon)

Change of plan on the releases - Lucky, Star and Luna have now been released here as we determined the release site we were going to use was unsuitable. MiniMan has now returned home, but poor little Jay's finder didn't turn up so he is being held back until tomorrow.

Froch went outside to her pre-release pen this morning weighing just a smidge under 450g. If she is anything like her brother, MinniMan who was released on Sunday, she will be trying to get out within 24 hours....

All of Sunday's releasees (Lucky, Star and Luna) have now abandoned their boxes and even Fluffy, who was still around on Sunday night, has moved out too. Very quiet out there as only four hogs left on the patio.

The three bigger babies (Carol, Paula and Jon) are now fully independent and are all feeding for themselves. All over 100g now, with Carol the glutton of the three. They've been moved into a bigger cage today, and there was self-anointing aplenty as they discovered new smells, bedding and newspaper - much chaos duly ensued.

Our two smallest admissions ever weighing just 23 and 26g have arrived from Kimberley. Mum was found dead, sadly. These little mites are probably only a few days old at most. They were very cold on admission so its fingers-crossed time please....

Well, the two wee ones have made it through their first night without incident. Unbelievable to see a 30g hog huffing and puffing and bouncing at you in indignation - where do they get the energy.

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Here they are, the little troublemakers... — at Snuffle Lodge.

If anyone in the Bulwell area felt a small earthquake last night that would be because Fred is no longer 'egg-bound'. It is heartening to report he is producing what all good hogs should do We're just waiting for him to clear his system before we do a check, but early signs are that he is just a noisy breather.

Self-anointing is a wonderful things hogs do when they encounter a new scent. They will lick and bite the new source, froth up a load of saliva and then contort their bodies to flick their tongues over the spines. I've seen them self-anoint a bowl of water, a wheelie bin, the bottom of my fence, but last night a wildie surpassed all of the above by self-anointing my foot - sidled up beside it and starting frothing up. It wasn't until the bitey bit that I squeaked slightly and the nosey hog ran a mile. Wildlife encounters like this are so wonderfully rare and unexpected.

Baby update : Hansel and Gretel are becoming a bit more tolerant of the syringe feeding every 2 hours and are gradually putting weight on. Still a lot of huffpuffery from them but as soon as they sense that syringe coming near - nomnomnom....

Sad news - we collected a poorly female from our chums at Ashfield House Byron Surgery last night - extremely malnourished and thin, she was in a collapsed state.The nurses managed to get rid of all the fly eggs , but it was clear she had been laid up poorly for some time. Sadly she passed away gently last night.

Two in today so far - Bob, 173g, male orphan collected from our friends at Oak House, and Tracy, 579g, subadult who refuses to disclose its sex just yet, but with a suspected broken back leg.

The three hoglets from Bulwell are doing very well, and are completely self-sufficient. Lots of self-anointing when they stumbled across their first kitten biscuits. Weights between 120 and 150g, and should be fully weaned in the next day or so.