All of our Spring guests at the Hedgehog Hotel have now been collected for release! As we had some spare “rooms”, Paula from Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue decided we could help by taking on some family groups.
Wendy
Wendy came into Suffolk Prickles last year and she had lost her front leg due to another animal attacking her, probably a fox. The leg was taken at the joint. We were able to stop any infection and because she is missing a front leg, she cannot dig for food in the wild or do some of the normal things that hedgehogs would be able to do, so it was decided she would be better off in our enclosed garden where we could monitor her regularly. During the winter months, we bring the hedgehogs into the lodge as they can be vulnerable to rat predation while hibernating. Then we return them out to the garden or other suitable space in the spring. Just before this happened this year, one of the male hedgehogs who was being rehabilitated escaped into Wendy’s pen! And now we have the result!
Wendy with her four Hoglets. They are individually colour coded to assist with monitoring their weight, but this is rubbed off before release so it doesn’t draw unwanted attention to them by predators.
Wendy has been a fabulous mum. The hoglets are now three weeks old and it is really important they learn as many natural skills from mum before they go for soft release to one of our monitored sites, so the pens at our Hedgehog Hotel are perfect for this. When they are a little older they will go to another larger pen that will contain lots of things to encourage foraging and materials for nest building at the place where they will eventually be released.
Wendy is a pro at getting on the scales.
The smallest of Wendy’s hoglets.
Summer
Summer was one of the first group of Hedgehogs we had stay in our Hotel. She arrived at Prickles last year as a young Hedgehog with her brother. Jerry had an injury which meant he needed a bit of extra time to build up his fitness before being released again. The two of them very much enjoyed exploring the large pens we have here, and we were confident that they could both be released together near where they had been found. During their stay with us, one of the other male Hedgehogs decided to go for a wander one evening and was found in Summer and Jerry’s pen. A few weeks later, during their daily clean, we were surprised to find Summer had delivered a baby!
Summer with her son Winter (named because of his grey-ish colouration
Hedgehogs are very susceptible to disturbance, so we quickly put everything back exactly as it had been, and moved Jerry to a spare pen. Jerry was, by now, ready for release, so Paula took him back to his home range, but we couldn’t move Summer while she had an infant. With advice and guidance from Paula, we’re pleased to say that Winter has thrived and is now growing into a happy and confident young Hoglet. He is a few days younger (we think) to Wendy’s offspring, but being an only child he has quickly caught up with them in size and weight.
Winter is a confident young Hoglet and we are enjoying watching him and the other babies develop