November 2010 - Another visit by the Wren

Monday 22nd: I posted last week that the Wren made it first return visit for mealworms after a Summer vacation. Well, today he/she came into the kitchen to help him/herself to mealworms! Now tell me that this Wren is not the same Wren that visited all last Winter! Wrens are very flighty birds and it's inconceivable that a bird on it's second visit would hop into the kitchen to eat! It took this Wren, last winter, several nervous visits to the back door before it would come in. Even the Blackbirds took half a dozen days and numerous visits to the back door before they comfortable in entering the kitchen to perch on the side and eat mealworms.

Saturday night was the last time we saw all three Hedghogs. Tonight is the second night that the Hedgehogs have not stirred from their hibernation houses. Last night they never appeared nor ate any food. So we believe that this could be the start of the hibernation period.

October 2010 - Hedgehog Hibernation Houses!

Friday 22nd: The nights are drawing-in and Autumn is finally upon us. It will soon be time for the three Hedgehogs to hibernate for the Winter. So the other night we went to the local DIY store and purchased some wood so that Melanie could construct the houses that the hedgehogs will use for the duration of their hibernation - that is if they decide to!

After spending the best part of the week building them, Mel tonight transferred the Hogs from the old cardboard shelters to these nice wooden boxes. Two have been built as that was what we reckoned was needed... "Pinky", the female that prefers her own company and is behaving rather squarely, has her own box. "Little-Lad"(not so little now), the male and "Grumpy", the other female, we thought, shared the other cardboard box and so Mel built a slightly larger wooden house. Well it turns out that "Grumpy" sleeps on her own too and the male has been cast out to sleep rough under a make-shift shelter... no wonder he likes to come into the kitchen at every opportunity!

Update 4/11/2010:

Mel has since built a third hedgehog house for Little-Lad and he has finally moved-in. All the hogs now appear to be using the houses and with the onset of the early dark nights, both "Pinky" and "Little-Lad" are out and about at 5pm. "Grumpy" meanwhile, stills likes to awaken later. They tend not to spend so much time in the kitchen now, preferring to be outside. The Hedgies have not shown any inclination as yet to hibernate. This is not unusual as the weather is still relatively mild.

September 2010 - Hoglets are now Hedgehogs!

Sunday 26th: It has been a privilege to watch these animals develop from such tiny and helpless creatures to three individuals who have their own personalities and are approaching adulthood. We are approaching the end of the 14th week so they are now 3 months old and all have a healthy weight: the male weighs-in at 818g and the largest female at a whopping 918g! We are extremely happy with the male as he was very poorly when just a few days old and not gaining any weight. It was touch-and-go with him but now he is a very healthy Hedgehog! The only (little) problem with these two is that they keep coming into the kitchen at night and spending as much time as they can in there!

Meanwhile, the other female is becoming a cause of concern; her current weight is 788g, which sounds good, but she has not gained the weight in the last two weeks that the other two have. She is the only one of the three that tends to behave as Hedgehogs do. She is people-shy, which is good, and spends most of her time outside in the enclosed garden. Though there is plenty of dried cat food out there plus whatever insects etc she can get, she is now lagging behind weight-wise. This Hedgehog was the one that was showing the most promise for release, but now we are holding-off.

Indeed, last week was the week that we were due to release them all but releasing them would in our opinion be a death sentence for them. After checking up on various websites and reading the research on releasing into the wild and seeing poor results with tagged hogs...we have decided to over-winter them for hibernation come December and take it from April when they emerge. When they emerge from hibernation next April, they should wake-up as adults and just maybe they will have all the adult instincts that tell us that we can release them to the wild and know that they will have a fighting chance.

September 2010 - Hoglets now young Hedgehogs

Thursday 9th: The Hoglets are now reaching the end of week 12 and have grown to such an extent that they can be called "young Hedgehogs". It's now approximately 4 weeks since they began to spend all night and day outside in the penned garden. Their weight tends to fluctuate by a few grammes on a daily basis but on the whole, the Hedgies are gaining the weight and thus, the fat reserves. All three at last are ahead of target for their weight according to
http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/, but are not ready for release yet. Having researched the subject of; "release into the wild", we believe that the Hedgies need to be over 700 grammes minimum weight in order to survive the Winter and hibernation.

At the moment, the male is far from ready. Weighing only 588 grammes and although healthy , fit and with a heavy set of quills, he has shown no inclination to making a nest, eating live insects, or showing any purpose in what he does. He does eat dried cat food and live mealworms and would readily eat all that we have, but mealworms are not generally found in abundance in the wild! It maybe that come late December, he may be staying behind but as yet it is still too early to make any decision about him.

The two females weigh-in at a hefty 690 & 670 grammes. Both have a heavy set of quills covering their bodies but like the male, are not eating live insects only live mealworms and dried cat food! Although one of them made the nest that all three tend to sleep in, the second female has shown no interest or need to build a nest.

The big question that faces us is; "If released in the next month or two, would they survive or starve?" I keep coming back with the answer; "they would starve!" These Hedgehogs are not wild animals, they were not born into the wild and know nothing of the wild and how to hunt for food. They were born by the patio door and abandoned/orphaned after a few days. Mel has done a monumental job in raising these three Hoglets to become young Hedgehogs. Though, they still have along way to go. For us, it would be cruel to release these animals into an environment that they have no instinct for. Better that they stay in the environment that they know until the time comes when they show us they are ready to leave!

August 2010 - First day and night in garden for Hoglets!

Sunday 22nd: Well, we are nearing the end of this journey of raising 3 orphaned/abandoned baby Hedgehogs. Maybe in four weeks we will release the Hedgies into the wild. We are now looking at possible locations well away from roads and hopefully their main predator...Badgers! The Hoglets already spend about 5 hours outside in the garden at night so as last Friday was a dry and warm night, we left them outside all night with their respective shelters, their group-built nest and a good supply of food and water. But it wasn't just a case of "leave them to it". I also stayed-up all night, checking on them each hour.

It's now 62 days and Monday is the start of week 10. Their weights are 436 and 382 grammes for the females and 300 grammes for the male. He is still not showing much in the way of instinct and purpose about what he does, like the two females. We would ideally wish to release them together, but if he is not ready then we may have to hold the two females back until he is ready. We will see what happens in the next few weeks.

Friday 27th: Apart from one night, the Hedgies have been spending all their time this week outside in the garden. Mel has widened the area within the garden that is secure and they roam at will, eat and sleep a bit then roam again. Apart from one day, when they lost weight due to the weather turning cold, they have all regained that lost weight and more!Their weights as of yesterday are 518, 442 & 364 grammes respectively.

August 2010 - Looking more like adult Hedgehogs

Monday 16th: This is the start of the 9th week and its been 56 days since the birth of these amazing animals - they look more and more like mini versions of adult Hedgehogs, particularly the two females. Besides being bulky and heavy, (the Hoglets pile on the weight each day), their bodies are now fully covered in quills and their fur has developed a brownish tinge.

The Hoglets are eating only dried food in enormous quantities and drinking water. A Hedgehogs natural instinct has kicked into play as they sleep most of the day and only become active at dusk - meaning late nights for us! As the Hoglets have got larger, they require a greater area to roam at night. This has necessitated in Melanie turning our back garden into one giant enclosed area.

Here the Hoglets can forage amongst the flower beds and rockery for insects and alike. The two females have taken to nest-building amongst the flower beds and tend to spend some of the night inside, while the male still prefers to rest in the shelter we have provided.

At the moment, their weights are 358, 328 & 234 grammes, the latter being the male and because of that we bring them inside the house around 2am for their safety. When the Hoglets top 400 grammes, we will be more confident about having them stay out all night by themselves!

August 2010 - Hoglets and Hedgehog!

Sunday 8th: Well, what a difference a week makes! We're now at the end of the 6th week, all the Hoglets are now into the 3-figure bracket for their weight! The two females weigh 202 and 222 grammes with the male lagging behind on 110 grammes. It's a strange scenario; what the male lacks in weight, he more than makes up for with bodily development. His eyes are fully open, ears are developed, whiskers and snout well grown and bodily hair on his body just like his siblings. The only things holding him back is his body size and his weight. We think that because he's always charging about, he doesn't sleep as much as the other two, so he's continually burning-off calories and loosing body mass! The females are very much on the road to youthful Hedgehog status. They eat, have a little mooch about and then slink-off to sleep. We try and have all three outside as much as possible now and they do seem to be better Hedgehogs for it! Though they are nowhere near the weights needed to release them, so that they have a chance of surviving hibernation and the forthcoming winter. And that will present another problem: where to release them? Do we provide them with shelter and food to start off with? These and more questions are what we have to tackle in the near future. But for now, the Hoglets progress is steady.

STOP PRESS!

In the early hours of Monday morning.....1:50am to be precise, Mel encountered an adult Hedgehog in the garden! I too saw it too just before it scampered off. My bed was calling me, so I too scamperd off soon after. Mel decided that she would stay out a little longer and sure enough, it came back! Not only that but it made it's way to the back door, climbing up a couple of tall steps and then tried several times to clamber over the taller door-step presumably with the intention of getting into the kitchen. After failing to do this, the Hedgehog walked past Melanie (who was watching only a few feet away) across the patio and under the gate through to the front of the house and away!

July 2010 - Hoglets eyes open and ears up!

Sunday 25th: I am pleased to report that the three Hoglets are now looking more and more like mini Hedghogs. Since they moved to the 'glop' from kitten's milk, they are piling the grammes on at 80, 78 grammes for the two females and 52 grammes for the male. Though according to various sources on the Internet, they are still underweight at 33 days, but we are happy with their progress. They appear fit and well, are eating and are now even spending time after every feed in the garden - though very closely supervised to guard against predators from both the ground and air.

The eyes on the two females are now fully opened and their ears have opened and are upright - in fact they are looking and behaving just like Hedgehogs. The lone male is still underdeveloped but his ears have opened and are upright too. His eyes are not fully open yet. We believe that he is about 2 weeks behind the other two in his development as he still only prefers kitten's milk. But he joins his siblings outside on the lawn after feeding. They snuffle about in the grass, anoint themselves and will walk around and investigate everything. After 15 minutes outside they will be brought back in and go back to sleep until the next feeding session when they will spend some more time outside. This acclimatisation is proving very beneficial and will prepare them for when they spend time in a small penn outside during the day in about 3 - 4 weeks.

July 2010 - Hoglets anointing and eyes peeping!

Sunday 18th: In the warm afternoon Sun, we took the Hoglets out into the garden to start a process of enabling them to feel the fresh air and ground. Hedgehogs rely almost entirely on their sense of smell, so introducing them to the great 'wilderness' and the feel of grass, soil etc will start to attune their senses for the task of survival. Of course we stayed very close to them, never taking our eyes off their continual walking.

Yes the Hogs have now got to the stage and have been for a week, where they have lifted their bodies off the ground and are now walking! In fact given the chance they'd walk until tired! This is good exercise as it strengthens the legs. All are putting on weight more rapidly and they are bulking-up at a reasonable rate - still below targeted weight but they seem to be progressing well at their own rates. The male though still the smallest is piling-on the grammes! The two females are much larger, being a third heavier than the male. Today was a day of 'Firsts': the eyes of the two females are now peeping, that is to say, though the eyelids are still slits, the tiny eyes can be seen. The other First is that the two females are now 'anointing' themselves.

July 2010: The Hoglets are growing!

Saturday 17th: Day 26. Of the three, the two females seem to be doing better than the solitary male. The females are putting weight on, weighing-in at 56 and 50 grammes. By comparison, the male is vastly underweight at 36 grammes and a source of concern. Mel is hand-feeding the male more intensively than the females which spend more time lapping from a small shallow lid. All are now on the 'glop', a mixture of quality puppy food and kitten's milk. It does now look like the females are developing teeth but their eye slits are still firmly closed. As you would expect with two of them now feeding themselves, there is also added mess as they will walk, fall over and roll in the 'glop' as well as getting it all over their head when feeding! All the Hoglets do still spend much of the time sleeping. Indeed it's still a case of sleep and eat at the moment.

July 2010 - Hoglets!

Monday 5th: Today, the Hoglets, we estimate are 14 days old and they appear to be developing more-or-less as expected. Most notably they have grown larger and the pink skin has turned dark in colour and become firmer. Their facial features are now more pronounced. The eye-slits are now beginning to open and we expect in 2 to 4 days they will be fully open.

Their weight is below target for 14 days but we expect them to pile it on when they start feeding on 'glop'. Mel has spoken on the phone to get some advice from a local 'Hedgehog Carer' and this was very helpful, which is more than can be said for one of the more "well-known" Rescue-Centers that she rang!

The photos were taken yesterday, Sunday 4th. More updates as and when.

June 2010 - Hand-rearing Hoglets!

Wednesday 30th: Unfortunately the Hedgehog either abandoned or orphaned the four Hoglets. As of last Thursday evening, Melanie has been hand-rearing these tiny Hedgehogs. When we checked on them late that afternoon, they were almost blue in colour with cold and looking like they had been left alone most of the previous night (as Hedgehogs hunt at night and can roam 2 to 3 kilometers) and all day.

They were obviously in some distress so the decision was made to take them in, warm them as a priority and then feed them. This necessitated me dashing down the road to the local Supermarket and buying a couple of cartons of Kitten's-milk.

Judging by the growth and firmness of the spines, we suspect that the Hoglets were born sometime last Monday 21st, so were initially suckled by the now absent Mother. As you can imagine with new-born animals, they require feeding every 2 or 3 hours and initially toileting. All credit to Melanie as she has risen to the challenge by following religiously a course of feeding through the day and night!

Various sources on the Internet have been checked-out for information on how to raise them. But alas last Saturday, the weakest and most underweight, passed-away. So we have three Hoglets: one male and two females. They are putting on 2 grammes of weight each day and as of yesterday weighed 30, 32 and 34 grammes.

Their eyes are not open yet and so are still blind We estimate that they will not open for another week. The Hoglets don't appear to require toileting now as they can go for themselves. So with fingers crossed and with Melanie's resolve we hope to rear these fine animals.