I am so sad

The hedgehog has gone! I am so sad.
The good news is they do normally depart the nest never to return. We have also looked everywhere and he's not lying injured or worse anywhere, so he's just gone looking for hedgehogs.
I am still leaving some food out just in case.
That is one hedgehog that would not be here today and its fantastic that he has integrated into the wild.

He's still there

You know the first thing I did this morning was rush outside to the garden and sneak a peek inside the hedgehog house. It was quite early as I didn't sleep all that well - I was worried about the hedghog. Guess what? he was curled up fast alseep in his little house. He had obviously had a party as the living area was a bit of a mess but that means he's made it home!
I was very good and didn't wake him but left him undisturbed with fresh food and water for when he wakes later.
This evening I will sit quietly inside the house and look for when he starts to forage across the lawn.

Moving on

The hedgehog is big enough to be released. Every day he has spent time in the garden as well as his new home, but that doesn't mean he has orienteering skills!
This morning I have put his house outside in a corner of the garden.
I chose the morning as he sleeps most of the day and he should be inside his little house. I am so afraid he will not be there in the morning!
he had a bit of a scratch about and found a snail which he munched.
I put his food and water near his box, I did succumb to putting his comfort flannel inside the box as well as Im sure he will want it!
He has now been outside for about 4 hours - I had to peek and guess what so far he is fast alseep inside his house.
Let's see what happens tomorrow!!
This is worse than having children leave for university.

I went shopping

So this feels a bit like a confession!
I have been waiting for my husband to start making a hedgehog house and so far there is no sign of anything.
Then yesterday I was shopping and on the top shelf of the pet store was this lovely little 2 room, pine version (see the pictures). It shouted to me 'buy me, buy me, buy me' I am sure you know what I mean. Anyway out came the little square of plastic and home we came. The lid comes off so I can clean it out every now and then and the bedroom is separate from the main bit (the lounge). Its made of pine wood and smells lovely, just like walking in the forest.
I am just hoping no one asks me what it cost because that is higly confidential but needless to say its a good job the credit card bill is not due for a whole month now!
I am going to see if I can make it fit inside his present residence so he can make it smell like home. trust me he will make it smell. Its the one thing I wish I could share with everyone else.
I am just amazed at how much poo a small hedgehog can make at night. he is still partying!! Everyday we start again with a clean house and newspaper.

The next step

Okay so we have mastered foraging, well, sort of but time will tell!
The next thing is learning to build a nest. Now it may have escaped your notice but I am human and a hedgehog is well a hedgehog. So how do I teach him to build his nest. This along with the foraging is a vital part to surviving in the wild. although I think the wild will be our back garden for a start.
The hedgehog presevration society suggest ripping up strips of newspaper or putting straw into the living spcae and encouraging the hedgehog to make it into a nest.
Over the weekend I have given him some newspaper everyday. The most amazing thing is he instinctively gathers the strips in his mouth and pulls it into his pouch. I have had to make him a new pouch out of some fleece as he was really getting a bit big for the store bought one. It is similar to how he has been pulling the comfort flannel into his space, so maybe he doesnt have issues after all, he was just doing what hedgehogs do.
He has made a circle of the strips and is curling up in the middle of them plus the flannel of course.

Monday 2nd August

I can't believe its a whole month since the hoglet appeared in our lives.
he has grown so much. I eighed him yesterday and hes now about 9 oz (250 gms) so he is half way to being big enough to be freed into the wild.
I took some new pictures of the foraging expedition on the lawn. he digs into the ground and then sniffs for food. So far he has found a snail and a beetle. Both were eaten with relish. he will be a great bug catcher if he stays in the garden.
I tried him on some banana and he just loved that. Think I might try some seeds or nuts next.

Thursday 29th July 2010

What do hedgehogs do at night? yes I know they are nocturnal and that is when they are active but this hoglet is still feeding in the day and learning to forage as well. He should be too tired to do much at night!
Now he's getting bigger and eating some cat food (as well as his favourite worms!)he is pooing more and it is definitely getting more smelly. So, every morning I clean his home, put fresh newspaper around the bottom and then put his soft chenille towel for a bed and on that goes his furry pouch and a flannel.
The flannel goes over the top of the pouch in case he needs some privacy. He takes the flannel label and pulls it in his mouth so it covers the entrance to his pouch and then tucks the label under his head (I tried to photograph this as its the cutist thing but as soon as I start to move the flannel he moves as well, so have not succeeded so far). Did you know hedgehogs had comfort tags? I am a bit worried he may have a complex.
Anyway I'm getting distracted, the whole point of this was what goes on at night?
You see in the day he poos in one end on the newspaper, so I carefully put some extra and tuck it up around the edges a bit in case his aim is not too good. he is male after all!
Well this morning, he seemed to have managed to poo at the wrong end and up the only bit of unprotected wall of his home. So was he having some kind of all night party and got lost on his way to the bathroom end?
He was also very hungry this morning and managed to eat unmashed cat food. At the time I did not think about the post party munchies (but maybe!) my reasoning for that was yesterday during the garden forage for worms, he found a snail and started to eat it. Yes, I can confirm that snails also make hedgehogs self anoint but they also get covered in snail slime and then it gets transferred to their spikes.
Actually I think that answers my whole question about the extra poo and the smell. The moral of the story is 'don't eat snails at partys'.

Monday 26th July 2010

Yesterday, I weighed the hedgehog, still no name but maybe Hoggy? Or Mr Hoggy!
Anyway, he now weighs 5 oz (125g). Thats amazing.
He has grown so much.
I decided that he needs to spend some time on the back garden lawn every day and learn how to forage for insects and worms. According to the preservation society he would start accompanying his mother about now. So as I seem to be his mother thats what we will do.
I have bought some meal worms - they were so expensive. I can't imagine why, they are worms after all! They come in different flavours. I would have thought just ordinary meal worm flavour would be fine.
Anyway I hid them in the grass and he hunts them out. He just loves to crunch them and has started to self anoint. Meal worms are obviously very exciting for hedgehogs!
He is starting to dig around but I have no idea how to really transition more into the wild and I guess I have lots of time as he's no where near big enough yet.
My husband has promised to build a hedghog house for the garden - let's see!

Wednesday 21st July 2010

The hoglet has teeth. I am still putting his food in the processor and mixing it with watered down goats milk but he has teeth at the front on his lower jaw and one each side at the back.

Tuesday 20th July 2010

My daughter says, why not write a blog Mum, so here it is.

The hoglet still has no name but he does have a furry pouch to hide in!

As soon as he hears my voice he pops out to say hello.

Monday 19th July 2010

My son and his girlfriend have taken turns all weekend to feed the hoglet.

We had a great time too, but I needed reassuring text messages about the hoglet every day.

Today he weighs 3 oz (85 gms), his eyes are open and his ears have appeared.

He's also lapping properly from a dish.

Wednesday 14th July 2010

I am really worried we are supposed to be visiting my sister in law and her husband this weekend, what do we do with the hoglet?
Well the ideal is to stop the night feed and now he's lapping properly and from an upturned lid, he needs solid food.
So I bought some hedgehog food abd its in hard pellets, so I put it in the blender with some of his watered down goats milk and am trying him on little bits of that.

10th July 2010

The hedgehog is lapping! Admittedly from the palm of my hand but lapping is lapping and its a start.
I suppose he needs a name:
My husband suggest Spike, my son suggests Mr Hedrick, my daughter says Mr Bumble.
I think we will be too attached to this hoglet!
Everyone is laughing at me now as they all know I am attached to the hoglet, just don't know what to call him!

8th July 2010

A week later and the hedgehog is still alive!

He now weighs 2 oz (56 gms).

I am still feeding him every 3 to 4 hours day and night.

He has some brown spikes and his eyes are straing to open.

We put him in the cat box but he's so little he keeps putting his head through the grid.

I have lined it with cardboard, then paper, then his comfort flannel sites on top of his towel wrapped hot water bottle.

My daughter (who has a pygmy hedgehog, Harry) has come for a couple of days and brought their hedgehogs travel box, now he's safe.

Its huge (see picture) to keep carrying upstairs every night, we need to teach this hedhog to lap - how do you do that?

Thursday 1st July 2010

Today I found a small ball of moss in the middle of the day. When I picked it up to put it in the green recycle wheelie bin - it moved!

Turns out it was a tiny abandoned baby hedgehog.

Its eyes and ears were still closed. He was extremely cold and I assumed dehydrated and hungry.

My husband searched the surrounding area for signs of the mother or the nest with no luck.

It wasn't going to live unless we got some fluids into it and I knew we couldn't give it cows milk, so water would have to do for now!

Ever resourceful I knew we had an old 2.5ml syringe in the cutlery drawer from years ago when the children were young and we needed to measure out medicines accurately.

I knew there was a reason we don't throw things away!

Of course it was covered in the usual debris thats found in all kitchen drawers, so we cleaned it in boling water.

The little hedgehog managed to drink some of the water and thats the first step.

The next move was to search the internet to know what to do. We knew it wouldn't be weaned so really needed milk, but where do you get hedghog milk?

I found a great website for the Britich hedgehog presevation society and they suggest watered down goats milk as hedgogs cannot tolerate lactose in cows milk.

Our local petrol station in the village stocks goats milk so the rescue started.

The hedgehog weighed about 1oz (28gms) and its spikes were still white so I estimated the hoglet (isn't that a great name for a baby hedghog?) was probably somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks old.

All night I fed him about every 2 to 3 hours - its worse than having a baby!

He was still alive the next morning - wow!

I contacted the local vets and they gave me a contact name and number for a local hedgehog rescue centre. I wasted so much time and energy leaving messages and no one ever phoned me back, so its either me get on with it or the hoglet dies.