24/09/2026
This is why we are strict on what our hedgehogs both wild and in rescue are fed. Mealworms (dried, powdered etc.) are BAD, fallen bird food is BAD as is human food.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - cat or kitten biscuits, high in protein and with no milk or lactose in the ingredients!
‼️‼️ Warning Distressing Video ‼️‼️
(Sorry for the long post, the video will be in the comments, please don't watch if you are easily upset)
Hedgehog Rescue is nothing if not a complete roller coaster. The highs of getting sick and injured hedgehogs back to full health but the deep dark lows when we fail.
Four weeks ago I had a call about a disturbed nest. After a telephone conversation with the finder I decided not to act immediately but to leave it a few hours to allow mum to return. After several hours mum hadn't returned so I went to investigate. Sadly, when I arrived I found that the nest was in a very exposed position and wouldn't be able to be left alone. The babies were only a couple of days old and were getting cold so I made the decision to bring them back to the rescue. The finder had a Ring doorbell that she set up to watch the nest for mum. I agreed to be on call should the mum turn up. At around 2:30am mum did indeed come back to look for her babies but unfortunately by the time the finder got to the nest she had disappeared again 😞 Finally at 5am she came back and I went to pick her up immediately.
Then came the tricky process of reintroduction which unusually didn't go well. She refused to accept the babies despite several attempts and was actually very aggressive towards them. This could have been for several reasons, maybe she wasn't their mum, maybe she was too stressed or maybe she knew something was wrong with them 💔
Anyway, I began the exhausting process of hand feeding and toileting 5 beautiful babies. Now other rescues will tell you that the chances of being successful with tiny neonatal babies is extremely low but I was going to give it my all.
Right from the beginning I had a feeling in my stomach that something was really wrong with them all. I've hand reared hundreds of babies and things were not normal, lots of things started ringing alarm bells, nevertheless, I had to carry on and fight for them. After the first week I started to dare to believe there was a chance, a slim one, but a chance all the same. Sadly the very next night two of them slipped away, one after another. Another couple of days and another one lost their fight followed a couple of days later by the fourth 😭 That left one little girl called Bryce, a really feisty little hog with plenty of attitude. She started to thrive and meet milestones, her eyes opened, her ears opened and she was feeding and toileting well.
Then everything went wrong 😞 I noticed that she was wobbling far more than she should have been and her front legs didn't seem to be able to bear her weight. Then her legs started to look bowed and misshapen and the reality of the situation started to dawn. My fear was that she had a condition called her MBD (Metabolic Bone Disease) so I contacted both my vet and wildlife vet Graham. X-rays were taken and my fears were confirmed, she did have MBD and had several fractures in her tiny bones. Heartbreakingly, there was only one outcome for her so I had to say goodbye and rest easy little one. This has broken me, I invested so much but in the end there was nothing I could do to save her. RIP sweet girl, reunited with your brothers and sisters 💔🦔💔
I'm sure lots of you will be asking why/how could this happen? We can't be 100% certain but it's most likely that mum was finding and eating mealworms, sunflower hearts etc. this is exactly why we ask people not to feed hedgehogs these items and to be careful if feeding the garden birds that anything spilt on the floor are cleared away before the nighttime 🙏🦔🙏
