Underweight Hedgehog in November

[BeanieH]

Hi,

Looking for some advice on an underweight hedgehog in our garden.

We have had numerous hedgehogs in our garden over Autumn, but as we are nearing Winter we now only have one regular. We were concerned about its welfare as it looked smaller than others and wasn’t hibernating. We researched and found numerous articles which suggests that if they are under 450g or even 650g after October, they should be rescued.

We weighed the hedgehog carefully on kitchen scales at it weighed 351g. Next time it stops by should we take it to a rescue centre?

If all nearby rescues centres are full show we leave it outside and invest in a hedgehog house?

Apart from being underweight for hibernation it looked otherwise healthy.

We did spot another one today around the same size but didn’t get a chance to weigh it.

Many thanks,

Calum

[stef]

If you can find a rescue that will take it then that will be the ideal situation.

As hogs start to struggle to find food they become stressed, this in turn can lead to their ‘normal’ parasite burden becoming overwhelming and this can then kill them, so while they ‘look’ fine they often aren’t.

If you cannot find a rescue to take them, then putting out a house is a great idea, but more importantly put out good quality small dog or cat food, or obviously you can buy hedgehog food but that’s more expensive and not any better

Good luck

[stef]

Further to this, the BHPS have a list of rescues, as do the RSPCA and your local vet probably does too. Not all may have the same people so worth checking around

[BeanieH]

Thanks, hard to know what the right thing to do is sometimes but this definitely helps. I contacted the BHPS, and they recommended rescuing it too. Getting in contact with any local carers who have room.

[heidi100]

I hope you manage to find a rescue place to take it in over winter. I have been very lucky to find one that have taken 6 underweight young ones (168g-420g) from me this week.

Hopefully you can feed up your HH. I had been very slightly warming the cat food up to give them a little more energy.

Keep trying the rescues as they may have get spaces freed up.

[Colin A]

We managed to rescue a total of four hoglets from the same brood this last few weeks. They weighed 150-220g. We took them all to Tiggywinkles who remarked they had been inundated in the last few weeks and that many hogs seemed to have had a late brood and because of the lateness most are underweight.

If you do rescue hogs and take them to a rescue centre please try and leave a donation to cover the cost of “board and lodging” for the winter. Many smaller centre survive on a shoestring budget and wouldn’t exist without donations.

[Ian]

The local rescue centre here had 50 young hedgehogs that were underweight and was asking around for people to take them in over winter. I built a hutch and took three. I still have them and they have put on weight. I’m waiting for the rescue people to tell me when they should let out. I hate having them caged up, although it’s a nice and quite big hutch. There is chicken wire all around, to stop rats and squirrels getting in and on top of the “open area” and I added a corrugated roof on the opening sloping section.
Inside I put a load of leaves, twigs, branches and a couple of hedgehogs houses.

http://www.muchmemory.be/images/hutch1.jpeg
http://www.muchmemory.be/images/hutch2.jpeg
http://www.muchmemory.be/images/hedgehog_villa.jpeg

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