| HWS European Hedgehog Month - June 2003 |
Elana Adler's European Adoption Story:
Elana Adler’s European Hoglet, Hagrid, at The Fylde Hedgehog Rescue Trust.
June 13th, 2003
This tiny 3 day old baby hedgehog hadn't had the best start in life.
His Mum had deserted the nursery nest after if had been disturbed,
taking her babies to another nest site, but leaving this baby
behind. All alone, he was found distressed and squeaking in the
garden where his nest had been. The old lady that found him
misguidedly thought that the best thing to do was to drown him.
However, her neighbour had heard what she was about to do and rescued
the baby hedgehog just in the nick of time. She brought him to the
Rescue Centre for care.
He had been without his Mum for nearly two days which is a long time
for a baby hedgehog. Already close to death he was icy cold.
Nothing could be done for him until he was warm and so he was placed
in a little knitted "bobble hat" with a heat mat underneath and then
put into an incubator. The bobble hat acts as a little "sleeping
bag" which would keep him nice and warm. He was also given a soft
toy hedgehog to cuddle up to. This acts as a "surrogate Mum" and is
especially useful in cases like this where there is a single orphan.
Not only was he missing his Mum, he was missing his siblings too.
For the first 24 hours he was very unsettled, he wouldn't take any
feeds and was continually squeaking in distress. I don't know what
made me do it but I picked him up in his little bobble hat and
snuggled him under my fleece jacket while I was busy at my desk. He
climbed out of the hat and crawled underneath my collar, snuggling
himself against my neck. I held him there for the next four hours
he had at last stopped squeaking.
Intensive care was given over the following three days. Once he was
warm he was started on special milk feeds given with a tiny syringe.
He was so small that only the tiniest drop of milk could be given at
a time, and for these three days he was fed every hour until he was
stable.
He is now two weeks old and is taking his feeds well every two /
three hours around the clock. His little eyes have just begun to
open and already his character is beginning to develop.
July 12th, 2003
A quick update for you on "Hagrid". He is doing really well, growing
fast now. He was weighed this morning and he now tips the scales at 298
grams! Over the past two weeks he has been gradually weaned on to solid
food, first with rusks in with his milk, then baby food (chicken flavour
gets the thumbs up!) and now he is being slowly introduced to cat food,
with small amounts of chicken, crushed bird nuts, crushed digestive
biscuits, raw mince and his particular favourite which is
toffe-flavoured popcorn - he loves it!! Only one or two pieces as a
special treat otherwise he would get too fat!
He is developing into quite a handsome little hedgehog. I took him
outside last evening and introduced him to the garden for the first
time. All the natural instincts are there - he was sniffing out insects
on the lawn, burying his nose deep into the grass and having a good old
dig in the soil in the borders. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. In about
another week when he is completely weaned onto solid foods he will be
transferred into a fully enclosed garden under the care and supervision
of one of my foster carers. There he will learn to forage for his own
natural food and learn how to build his own nest. Supplementary food
will be left out for him every evening and a nest box sited in the
garden should he decide to use it.
This will also be a time when its "hands off" - he will have had a lot
of handling over the past few weeks but now he will need to establish
his independence and regain his fear of humans if he is to survive back
in the wild. With other hand-reared babies in the past I have seen the
remarkable transformation to becoming wild again almost overnight.
I have attached a couple of photographs of him taken in the back garden
last night. As you can see he has changed such a lot in such a short
time. He actually looks bigger than what he really is! He is now
14cms in length.
I will let you know how "Hagrid" progresses over the next few weeks.
 
©2001-2006 The Hedgehog Welfare Society
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