Two of our keepers, Nick & Jennie spent a morning in early December at Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue at Stonham Aspal, to finish their Level One Hedgehog Care training, which was delayed due to the pandemic.
The course entails learning about some basic ecology needs such as nests building, hedgehog activity during the year, what hedgehogs eat and 'normal' hedgehog behaviour. Under the watchful eye of Paula they mastered their Hog handling skills, from lively juveniles, up to some large adults. Paula also tested them on how to read a hog’s body language to determine its health issues and possible problems.
Hedgehog handling is a key part of the course
They then helped the volunteer on duty with cleaning out the hog’s boxes, putting out food and water and the most important bit - weighing the hogs! It really highlighted the importance of the daily weight checks, as some had lost weight overnight and some had gained. This can be due to the weather conditions or a sign of getting better (if weight gained) after medication course has finished.
These young Hedgehoglets are tucking into their food after being rescued.
We will be working in partnership with Suffolk Prickles, with the Hedgehog Hotel at SOS being the last step of their recovery, offering both inside shelter and outside space to forage naturally as they rehabilitate before being released back into the wild on their home ranges where they were found if possible.
Our Hedgehog Hotel will soon have some guests.
Strange items will start appearing on our Amazon wish list soon, and will be shared with Suffolk Prickles also a registered charity so we can help each other to help more Hogs!