Although our hospitalisation facilities are primarily based in S.W. Leicestershire, over the years we have built up a network Membership of contacts around the UK, the active ones all involved in the same kind of wildlife rescue work, as well as non-active Members, too. All Members receive our regular Newsletter/magazine, full of our latest news and features about Hedgehogs, plus any other benefits of Membership, and are always welcome to contribute their own stories, anecdotes, photos and poems.
SPECIAL THANKS LATEST - JUNE '06... We would like to express our deepest Thanks to Georgina Dean in Burbage, who has once again sold plants in aid of our funds, as her chosen charity - this time she has so very kindly raised £160.00 which will go towards buying a brand new Intensive-care Incubator, to add to our essential facilities this year.
New Members of all ages are always welcome! If you would like to be added on our Membership mailing-list, please E-MAIL us! All we ask for in return, is a small donation, to help with the funding of our work.
Please click HERE if you want to support us, by making a donation. Or, you might want to sponsor a hedgehog, one of whom is currently in our care! Please read about our popular and ongoing Adopt-A-Hedgehog Scheme.
Baby Snowy - who we rescued in November, 2000. She was like an albino (pink eyes, nose and skin), but in fact a very rare champagne-blonde, not pure white.
Within this Site there are pages of information on what to do if you find a sick, injured or orphaned Hedgehog (hyperlinks below). If you see one who is out in the day, this means something is wrong!
SPECIAL THANKS PAGE - Please click HERE!
Please also check out our Photo Albums!
Some of our pages from in the past...Gallery Autumn - Winter 2002/'03!
OUT IN THE DAY? This means that something is wrong! Hedgehogs are Nocturnal! Click the following hyperlinks to find out what you should do if you have found a sick, injured, orphaned or abandoned hedgehog: Hedgehog First Aid, and Sick hedgehogs, Injured hedgehogs and Orphaned baby hoglets. All sick or injured hogs will probably be suffering from shock; they need WARMTH - extremely important. Please use a high-sided box with a hot water bottle well-wrapped in a towel, CAREFULLY place the hedgehog in the box. Gently covering the casualty with additional towel-material or old wollies will help to keep him/her warm. Please try not to handle the casualty too much when moving him/her to a box. If an orphaned baby, if hungry but not too weak, he/she will be squealing loudly for food! Seriously ill hedgehogs will be very cold and weak, laying collapsed and unable to move. Hyperthermia is a killer of any wildlife, and heavy breathing, very bad snuffling/gurgling and bubbles from nose indicates Pneumonia. If you have found more than one baby in the litter or the whole family, please make sure all babies are huddled together for warmth. DO NOT handle them with bare hands if their mother is with them and there is a chance she will continue to suckle them. Try to gather as much of the original nest (leaves, moss, etc.) as possible - wearing gardening gloves to leave no scent on them, then contact someone for advice. However, if the lactating mother is missing it is very likely they will need to be hand-reared (see hyperlinks). PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL HEDGEHOGS NEED TO WEIGH AT LEAST 600 GRAMS (APPROX. 1 & 1/4 lb.) TO SURVIVE WINTER HIBERNATION. Any late-born baby hoglets / juveniles weighing less than 600 g. will need to be taken into care during the Winter...
Hedgehog First Aid (please click!).
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! To avoid the risk of starting Pneumonia, due to flooding of the mouth - Please DO NOT attempt to pump any fluid into a sick, injured or orphaned hedgehog, until you have contacted us first!
IN AN EMERGENCY....
Make up "international re-hydration fluid" - which is 2 pints boiled water (still warm), with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt - Re-hydrating hedgehogs (click for information)... Contact us as soon as possible (link to contact page, below), or call your local hedgehog/wildlife rescue centre in your area. We hope to make a complete listing page of all other hedgehog rescue centres we can find. We have found that a lot of callers to us struggle to find rescuers/carers for their area. This is partly because sadly a number of wildlife rescue centres have been forced to close down for some reason or other during the last few years, while some websites currently on the Internet that list other rescues have the contact details grossly out-of-date (not been updated) and no-where near all the rescues are listed! That sounds like bad news, but don't worry, we and our friends have had great success in linking-up callers with available contacts - there are contacts serving all areas, some areas are very well covered. (Complete List coming soon)! During 2003 - '05, we received calls from literally anywhere in the UK and beyond - during peak seasons, taking up to around 7 or more calls a day! We have been and continue to be very successful in linking-up callers with a genuine hedgehog / wildlife rescuer in their area - within 15 miles or less from them, often only within a mile away from them, that they hadn't heard of or didn't know existed! By the end of each year, we will have helped and rescued hundreds of animals. As well as the other casualties, we have had excellent success with the many babies we have lovingly hand-reared (from as young as newborn), and both 2004 and '05 were our most busy and successful years yet, with casualties (mostly orphan babies / families) arriving from not just locally, but from as far away as Birmingham, Northampton, Nottingham, Retford and Manchester! 2006 patients so far, include a disturbed family - mother hedgehog with five babies, from near Twycross, arriving at the beginning of June. The family were dug out by a pet dog (which happens often) - the babies only newborn. The callers followed our advice closely, using gardening gloves to gather up the family and as much of the original nest as could, being very carefully put in a cardboard box with enough bedding. Utmost care has been taken! The family (and their nest box) being in a quiet, dark, warm corner, the mother able to suckle her young while given access to fresh food and water left every day for her - and 3 weeks later on, mother and babies are still doing fine!
To contact us, please click HERE!
LINKS PAGE - Please check out all these wonderful hedgehog rescue websites (click)!
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Over the Garden Gate (please visit!)...
An environmentally friendly, interactive UK gardening cyber-community with a border for everyone. Forum and Chat
Room, Picture Album (add your own!), Gardening and wildlife information and archives, links and much mor
UIST HEDGEHOGS. Please check out this Link, from our friends at Epping Forest Hedgehog Rescue, to support the evacuation rescue of hedgehogs from the Uist Islands in Scotland. Currently, we are all appealing for suitable gardens to relocate these hedgehogs, (evacuation from the Uist probably taking place in March, '03 onwards). Our appeal has been quite successful so far! We ourselves (Spikey's) are sending out a 4-page information letter to all people interested. If the evacuation does take place, it is going to be a mammoth task for us and all other Hedgehog rescue groups involved...hundreds of evacuated hedgehogs will need our care, so we really need generous support, in the form of money or food and bedding supplies.
Unless otherwise stated, all contents of this Site (pictures, artwork and texts) are the property of Hogarth's / Spikey’s Hedgehog Rescue, Copyright © 1993 - 2006. All Rights Reserved.
This Site last updated on Weds. 21/ June/ 2006.
This is a painting that was done in June, 1999, by David G. Hall, as a fundraising effort for our rescue, hospital and care facilities.
