Sunday 14 December 2008

The Hedgehog Diaries

Hedgehog DiaryDecember 13th, 2008
Tiggy was found out wandering in our garden on 13th December 2008. We think he woke up from hibernation as he immediately started eating some chicken cat food I put down for him. He was out during daylight hours too.We brought him in and put him inside our large cat box with some food and water and newspaper bedding and an old towel. Well he isn't house trained so I got to hold him while we changed his bedding again and threw away the towel. He ate two saucers of cat food and then another during the night. He just looked too small to me to finish his hibernation outside in the cold.



December 14th, 2008
Okay we have slept on this matter and in the meantime I have read up on Hedgehogs on the internet British Hedgehogs Preservation and chatted to a few internet friends. One who works for the wildlife trust on Brownsea Island. He said that I shouldn't let him go back into hibernation as he won't wake up from it. So I feel a bit better about waking him up to clean his bedding. We weighed him and he weighs in at 412 grams. This is too small for spending the winter trying to hibernate. So we will keep him inside and warm and food and water and dry bedding down for him until he is big enough to look after himself next spring. At the moment we are feeding him some wet Chicken cat food. No gravy. And some dry catfood mixed with some muselix, raisins and some meal worms that we had bought for our little robin and Black bird. Also plenty of fresh water for him too. He woke up at 6.pm this evening and had a bite to eat and drink and then crawled into the catfood box we made into a little hut. :) I think he is happy as he left us a nice little parcel or two to clean up again and we must think of what to do for keeping the card board box dry. During the time we are up with him we will keep him in it as it is large enough for him to get some exercise. And then put him in the cat box at night when we go to bed. That will keep him and the cats safe. Brian had to actually go out and buy a Sunday paper today just so we could have some bedding. If I were feeling up to it I would have driven over to the pet shop, but I have the flu at the moment and with all the cold meds don't think that is very wise. So for the moment we are getting by on things around here. I did notice Tiggy was active around 9.00pm for a bit and then he settled down again for some more sleep. Right before bed we placed him in the cat carrier for the night.







December 15th, 2008 6.36am
Took Tiggy from the cat carrier and put him in his palatial estate this morning. And gave him some more chicken Cat food, Fresh water and his dried food mix. He is a bit more livelier this morning and checking out his surroundings a bit more. A few more little pressies and a bit of wee so cleaned his bedding and now he is sound asleep again. I can't get over how noisy they are when they eat. LOL I remember my mom always telling me not to chew food with my mouth open. Maybe his mom forgot to tell him.

3 comments:

Linda*C said...

Oh how sweet, you just know how to help the critters out. Ourt very own mother nature! LOL
Well done for taking care of him/her?
x

Linda said...

Oh my, what a cute little hedgie.

Pat said...

Thanks Girls, Tiggy is cute and enjoying taking care of him/her.