Baby hedgehog in struggle for survival

This baby hedgehog was found lying out on the grass in a garden, perhaps he’d been left behind when mum moved on or was disturbed.  A lot of dogs go after hedgehogs, they seem to have a natural instinct to do it in spite of all the spikes.   There was no sign of mum and the rest of the babies so this one was brought in to us.   We think he’s under two weeks old.  They don’t have spikes when they are born, than goodness, but have a sort of pimpled skin, the spines come afterwards.

This little hedgehog fella doesn’t even has his eyes open yet so it is touch and go whether we rear him.   He took to the formula milk straight away though which is an excellent sign.  Baby hedgehogs or hoglets as they are properly known, can’t tolerate cow’s milk very well, it’s indigestible to them. Goat’s milk is a bit better but there is a specially made up milk for these frail babies and they do well on it.

We’re feeding him from a syringe and he’s sucking away when he’s hungry.  It’s little and often at this stage. Keeping him warm helps with his survival, once they go cold it’s all over.   It’s surprising what a range of noises hedgehogs make, even at this age he huffs and puffs – contentment with a full tummy we hope.

Hedgehogs are fascinating creatures, so different from anything else we see in our environment.  They have unusual and very different lifestyles and it’s such a pity that the way we live puts them at risk and in danger.   No slug pellets please, watch out for them on the roads, make gaps in your garden fences so they can roam, provide shelter for them, put out food if you see them around (mealworms, peanuts, sunflower seeds, water)

When his eyes open and he gets a bit stronger we’ll start to be optimistic.  At the moment all we can is hope for the best.