Northumbrian Hedgehog Rescue

Last week we were joined by two Veterinary students from Surrey, Libby & Marie. I hope they enjoyed their time with us as much as we appreciated the work they did for us completing all the essential daily tasks. This is not the first time we've had students on placement from Surrey and do love having them here.

Annabelle, who volunteered for us on a regular basis prior to going to University, has asked if she can video some of our hedgehogs for a project she's doing for Uni. She just wants to capture interesting moments as they happen without being at all intrusive and we thought you might enjoy seeing Charles & Camilla enjoying their Esbilac milk. They came to us as very tiny hoglets, less than 2 weeks of age and required regular syringe feeding every 2 hours. Here, as you can see, they've now progressed onto lapping the milk from a shallow dish - sometimes using it as a paddling pool as well!! They're both doing extremely well which makes the work we do here so enjoyable and rewarding.

How cute is this? Baby, a hoglet from Howick arrived yesterday and soon discovered the feeding bowl was just the place to have quick nap!

A big thank you to Samantha W who asked friends and family to donate to the hedgehogs when it was her birthday in May. Very much appreciated Samantha Thank you so much.

Some of the young orphans we've been feeding on Esbilac milk are now being weaned onto Royal Canin Mother and Baby pate and seem to thoroughly enjoy it as this video shows Thank you Dawn for the video.

Many thanks again Liz for all your work on the map showing where our rescue hedgehogs were found. So far this year we have had 118 hedgehogs admitted into the Rescue with 62 arriving in May.

One of our volunteers Jill manned our information stand at Ryton last weekend. Our information stands are always well attended. Children especially are interested in finding out more about hedgehogs and we find that many are learning about them at school.

At the moment Carole is busy feeding 5 hoglets, all under 2 weeks of age, every 2/3 hours. They all want to be first but are being done in strict rotation. There is always one who is more adventurous and, on this occasion, decided he would see if the "grass was greener" and crawled onto Buster, Carole's elderly Yorkie who is always sitting beside her. Buster just laid there quietly and wasn't in the least bit perturbed as the hoglet snuffled into his nice, soft, warm fur - possibly looking for milk filled teats, totally unaware it was an impossible dream! It kept him happy until his turn came round and Buster was quite content to oblige!

We have just taken in the first babies of 2019 One, who is not quite 2 weeks old, came from Blakelaw and the other two (approximately 1 week old) from Stannington. Everyone concerned had ensured Mum was no longer caring for their babies before intervening but they're now snuggled up on a warm blanket in an incubator and being fed every 2 hours on Esbilac and lambs colostrum. Hard work, but such a privilege and so rewarding.

We were invited to take part in a Schools Day at Glendale again this year. It's a wonderful event where schools from across the region are invited to bring pupils to learn all about rural life. It's an extremely busy day for them with a wide range of things to see from farm equipment, farm animals, bee keeping and of course hedgehogs - there's not enough space to list everything! It is a wonderful opportunity for us to answer all the amazing questions young people ask and we also take Harvey, our taxidermy hedgehog to the event, in order for them to see, at close range, exactly what a hedgehog looks like. The event attracted approximately 1600 children this year who, if previous years are anything to go by, would all be very well behaved and ask lots of interesting questions. What a great opportunity for these youngsters.

We have received another megabox of Whiskas Poultry in jelly from our Amazon wish list but, unfortunately, we are not told who the generous donor is. Very many thanks for being so kind and helping our hedgehogs.

Do you remember the story of Rees, the hedgehog found down a hole and covered in mud? We know everyone loves a happy ending and there are none more so than the story of Rees, who is now almost ready to be released back to the wild as her claws are now much longer and she'll be able to successfully forage again. Following the story on Facebook we received a phone call from Northumbrian Water, followed by a donation, and also a call from Fast Flow, the company actually carry...ing out the work. Today, Gordon from Fast Flow popped in to see us, and said they would like to support our cause and discussed how best they can help. Not only that but, since the incident with Rees which was the first they'd known regarding a hedgehog, (Carole did explain Rees was probably thirsty and looking for water which of course would be in the hole) they now had systems in place which would prevent any further animals getting trapped. On housing estates they now put wooden ramps into holes to allow any animal to climb out successfully, and in fields where long trenches are dug, they make sure both ends have ramps, again so anything can escape successfully. There will of course be safety barriers to protect humans from accidents. It's fair to say the best way to judge a Company is by how they deal with a complaint and, in the case of Rees the hedgehog, we think both Northumbrian Water and Fast Flow deserve massive praise for dealing with the incident so promptly and also putting in a great deal of thought in ensuring there is never a repetition of what happened to Rees. Thank you so much - a wonderful result and a happy ending all round.
See More

We have been receiving an amazing amount of support from you all and it is particularly welcome as we're now getting many hedgehogs coming in daily who require our care and attention.

We also had another megabox of Whiskas poultry in jelly delivered by courier which, we believe, is from our Amazon wish list but unfortunately no details regarding the kind donor are given. We are very grateful to the person who organised that delivery - thank you.

Ray from Ashington called today bearing gifts. He gave us a donation plus 2 megaboxes of Whiskas poultry in jelly and a note saying they were all given with love from Anita & Ray. That is so kind - thank you both very much for helping us so generously.

George M, who supports us so very generously every year, and follows us on Facebook, saw our recent stories about using Activon Medical Grade Manuka Honey so successfully. It really has such amazing healing qualities. He bought several boxes for us and we received his wonderful gift yesterday. Such a thoughtful gesture - thank you George.

We also received a cash donation from a couple who rent a nearby holiday cottage every year and always leave a donation for our hedgehogs. The owner of the cottage, Eileen, is one of our ardent supporters and sometimes releases hedgehogs for us when they cannot be returned to their original home but come from the local area.

Someone has very kindly arranged for 2 megaboxes of Whiskas Poultry in Jelly to be delivered to us but, unfortunately, there wasn't a name attached to the parcel. Thank you very much to the caring donor who ordered those for us. We are so fortunate so many people are willing to support us this way and helps us enormously.