Sunday 5 October 2008

A phonecall to the Hedgehog preservation society


I phoned the Hedgehog preservation society for some advice yesterday and learnt a lot about Autumn juveniles, as Hetty is official known.

I was getting a bit jittery about what to do, how to do it and whether we were doing all we could to help Hetty survive.

After ascertaining whether of not we were willing to look after Hetty or whether we wanted to get someone else to take care of her, the first thing this wonderful and knowledgeable lady told me was not to be surprised if everything seemed to be going well and then one day Hetty just died unexpectedly.

:(

Apparently the odds of an autumn juvenile surviving are much slimmer than their summer cousins. She said that numerous people ring her up asking her what they did wrong because they have a dead hedgehog on their hands, but she assured me this is common and it just happens for no apparent reason.

So with that reality check out of the way I went on to ask my questions:

What should I be feeding our orphaned hoglet?
Should a baby hedgehog be having milk?
She keeps going under the fire, is she too cold?
What if a hoglet gets too cold?
Will a hoglet wee or poo in their own nests?
Can a hedgehog pass on any diseases to humans?
Do hedgehogs lose their prickles (spines)?
Do hedgehogs bite?

I'll type the answers up tomorrow. Hetty gets quite loud at 1:30am with rearranging her bedroom furniture and I'm too tired to type much today!

2 comments:

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

I stumbled downstairs at 05:30 this morning to make the tea and toast and as I did thought "I wonder how Hettie is today".

Whatever the outcome Mrs. G you all could not be doing more and thank you for letting us share the story.

Blessings

rae-ann said...

Awww, thank you Peter, I know Hetty will appreciate being in your thoughts. :)

At 5:30am, she was probably just getting ready to go back to bed!

Rae x