Sondra and Kimberly Harmon's European Adoption Story:
Sondra and Kimberly Harmon's European Hoglet, Jupiter, at The Fylde Hedgehog Rescue Trust.
Here is the adorable little boy we have adopted. Kimberly has decided to name him Jupiter after our largest planet & King of Roman gods. We hope he will grow into his name.
Sondra
Kimberly
Mars - a new broder, I will share my mealies
Rambo - I'm a King too!
July 1st, 2003
Hi Sondra and Kimberly,
This is the special baby hedgehog I have chosen for you to adopt. Below is the case history of this little hedgehog - why he had to be rescued etc and I have attached a photograph of him for you.
I hope you enjoy adopting this little fellow.
With kind regards,
Janis Dean
This tiny baby hedgehog came to the Rescue Centre after being found in a garden in the Longton area of Preston which is about 30 miles away. He was found all alone in the nursery nest which was inside a greenhouse. After a phone call to the Rescue Centre for advice it was decided to wait a while to see if the Mum would return for her baby. It was likely that the nest had been disturbed and the Mum had taken her other babies to another nest site. It is most unusual to have just one baby – four or five is the average size of a litter. Several hours later and there was still no sign of his Mum. The little hedgehog was now becoming quite distressed and so he was rescued and brought to us for care. We always have to give the Mum a chance that she might return to her babies, but sadly in this case it was not to be.
He weighed in at only 70 grams and I assessed him to be around 7 days old. His little eyes and ears not yet open, would open when he was around two weeks old. He was icy cold and not very responsive and so he was placed into a warm incubator inside a little woollen bobby hat which made an ideal sleeping bag for him. A soft cuddly toy hedgehog was also put beside him, and this would act as a “surrogate Mum” – particularly useful in cases like this where there is a single orphan. Not only was he missing his Mum he was also missing his other siblings.
Once he was warm he was fed with special milk from a tiny pipette every hour around the clock at first, until his condition was stable. I didn’t get much sleep over the next few days! He has progressed now to three hourly feeds thank goodness! Yesterday it was noticed that he was wheezing a little bit, and so he is now on a course of antibiotic injections to ward off any infection that may be developing. There is always a chance with babies this young that have been abandoned for some time, that they will develop pneumonia but he is still feeding quite well so this is a positive sign.
Thank you Sondra and Kimberly for adopting this little hedgehog. I will send you updates to let you know the progress he is making.
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