East Boldre Hedgehog Rescue

16/07/2023

Helpwildlife.co.uk is a directory of 600 wildlife rescues.

HelpWildlife.co.uk is a charity-run site aiming to provide advice to members of the public who find wildlife casualties, help casualty finders to locate a wildlife rescue in their area, and provide advice on humane, holistic methods of wildlife management. The site first began in 2005 in response

27/06/2023

We get report after report of people moving hedgehogs to totally inappropriate places and that will often result in the death of the animal as it either tries to find its way to somewhere suitable or succumbs to whatever is preventing hogs being in that area.

Hedgehogs mostly live in back gardens these days. Fields and woods are devoid of them for many reasons. Please do not pick them up and dump them there, they know their daily route. They have nests and suitable materials to rebuild them. They also have regular watering holes and food stops.

If you have decided to move a family of hedgehogs for whatever reason BEFORE you act, call a rescue and explain what you want to do and why. Please tell them the truth not something you think might make them not shout at you (we mostly don't). If we know what, why, and when then we can give the correct information.

Yesterday a call came in after they had acted, incorrectly, and now a family has been split and possibly lost.

Hedgehogs do not live in fields, woods (unless they back onto gardens), waterlogged areas, and open mountains and hills. They are called HEDGE hogs for a reason. Gardens are ideal with plenty of cover.

02/06/2023

30/05/2023

As the weather warms up, don't forget about the hedgehogs living in your garden!

☀️ 🌡️ 💧 🦔

Especially during hot, sunny spells, make sure you provide a shallow dish of fresh water for and other wildlife in your garden to drink 🐦 🦔 🐞

Pop in a few pebbles so thirsty butterflies and bees can safely take advantage of a cooling drink too 🐝 🦋

Please share to make aware!

21/05/2023

I need to stress this over and over again,

if you find a hedgehog with babies..

DO NOT TOUCH
DO NOT TAKE SELFIES
DO NOT GET YOUR SMELL ON THE BABIES AT ALL

Quietly cover them back up
Back off

and if you can't leave them alone for some dire reason then call your nearest rescue immediately BEFORE doing anything else.

Otherwise, watch from a distance to make sure mum stays in the nest.

If you don't follow these rules and the babies are younger than 2 weeks, mum is likely to do one of two things:
1 - run off and leave the babies to die
2 - kill the babies.

Rescues don't take kindly to having to hand rear a litter of orphans that would have been much better off with Mum. It's a lot of work and no sleep.
There are strict protocols for successfully moving a mum with newborns and they need to be followed if the babies are to survive. There is nothing worse than opening a box to find a mum and half a dozen half-eaten babies.

18/05/2023

The course is run in partnership with Vale Wildlife Hospital and is being held at The Vale Wildlife Hospital, Nr Tewkesbury. It runs from 9 am until around 4.30-5pm and must be booked and paid for through the BHPS by phone on 01584 890 801. The course costs £70 per person, but if you have been...

11/05/2023

Disturbing a hedgehog nest happens more than you think. Mostly, it’s just a complete accident. Garden clearing uncovers them & unfortunately makes the hedgehog babies & mum very vulnerable..

What should you do ?

It’s really important once you realise there is a nest, to quickly cover nest back with the material mumma used to make it, step away, leave them be.. of course hope Mumma stays, but sometimes she will dash away.. abandoning her hoglets… out of fear.
Please don’t hang about and as tempting as it may be to get your camera out and take pictures, you need to leave well alone.
The hoglets need their mum and your smell on the bedding may encourage her to completely abandon or even eat her own babies.

If Mumma does make a dash for it, step away, please keep your distance & an eye out to see if she returns, if after a couple of hours she’s not back, pick up the phone and contact your nearest hedgehog rescue who can advise & hopefully take the hoglets in, or if they can’t help, they may be able to point you in the direction of another rescue who can.

Please remember rescues are really busy, some may be full. Its not always possible to pick up the phone right away, they may be in the middle of cleaning, treating, & giving medication to the many hogs they will have in their care, tiny hoglets will need feeding every few hours too, so if they don’t answer right away leave an urgent message, please also don’t hesitate to call other rescues too, time is of the essence. You need advice.

The youngsters need warmth, and special care, special formula, and experienced hands.
Please do not try to hand rear the young yourself.
Hand rearing young isn’t so easy, they can suffer and die quickly. Hypothermia, Bloat, over feeding or feeding the wrong type of formula can kill the babies very quickly, often the public is trying their best, but get it wrong. Rescue knows what to do, even then it’s not easy to successfully rear a litter of hoglets without Mum.

It’s always best if the nest has been completely destroyed to try and hang on to mum hog, if you can keeping her, with her babies & being able to bring them all together to a rescue, the rescue will have a better chance for her hoglets to survive.
Mumma is always best for her babies..🦔🦔🦔🦔🦔

Late last year someone locally was pulling down a derelict shed, by the time they got down to taking the bottom apart they found a nest of 5 baby hoglets and mumma, fortunately I was contacted immediately, they asked what to do.
There was no cover anymore for the nest, the rest of the demolition was gonna happen too..
I asked the finder to get a big box & wearing gloves to secure mum, they were to get as much of the nest with all bedding, for mumma & her babies, to gently pop them all in the box, close it and be as quiet and gentle as possible. Try not to keep looking. They see us as a predator!
All 6 hedgehogs arrived in this huge cardboard box, which once housed a brand new microwave. I very gently cut a doorway with them in it, I did y quietly, & gently.
I didn’t want to disturb mum by lifting her out or separating her from her babies. Handling them could be the last straw for mumma and she may cannibalise the 12 hour old hoglets, so I put the box now with a doorway, in large kennel & run, gently I added a little extra straw on top I did this without disturbing what was below ( mumma & her babies ) I left extra bedding outside for mum to take in, which over the coming days she did, it was getting colder at nights.

I fed Mum in the run @ night , not disturbing her nest at all in the Kennel bit where her box was.

A few weeks later 5 little hoglets began to follow Mum out the nest foraging with her. I was delighted.

All hogs were eventually released back to the wild.
Although because of the time of year, late autumn, Mumma went out to the wild first to hibernate, I bought the little ones on to a releasable weight and all but one were released here @ Spiny Norman’s .. one was smaller a tiny runt, although 300g, he stayed with me over winter & was released just a few weeks ago.

The moral of the story is with mumma, there is often a better success rate for the litter.

Helping us help the hedgehogs

💜🦔💜

05/05/2023

It's day 6 of National Hedgehog Awareness week and you may already know that we are the world’s busiest Wildlife hospital, and you may even know what we have a Visitor Centre where you can see some of our permanent patients, but did you know we are also home to one of the world’s only Hedgehog Museums? Complete with everything from a look at hedgehogs during the war, right up to a working sonic the hedgehog game! Next time you come to the Visitor Centre make sure you check it out!

04/05/2023

04/05/2023