Thanks Nic, well I’m having a really good day. Mum drove me to the hospital, so Sweetpea is now in hospital. As she’s a good weight, and acting normal, she will get her treatment for lungworm, and when that’s cleared up, and when she reaches a good release weight (probably 650g or more), she will be released back – and the lady at the hospital asked me if I wanted to buy one of their hedgehog homes (which has a lid this time), which I said yes.
I showed her the food bowl and asked if that was too much, she said it was fine, and told her that I’ve been checking up on her too much, she told me not to worry about it so much because she said the hedgehog will still hate you as much as they hated you when you first picked them up. She said there not like birds where they make an imprint on you, as bird’s don’t know what species they are given they hatch out of eggs, where hedgehogs know they are hedgehogs given that they live with their siblings for a bit – so I feel less guilty know.
She was probably more relieved that I kept an eye on her. But next time, I won’t fuss so much.
Calvin, the first hedgehog I rescued, who had internal parasites, he’s going to be okay, but taking long to put on weight, his on meds but the parasites are still making him ill at the moment, whereas Sweetpea isn’t showing symptoms of lungworm yet, so if she gets treatment, it would be like she never had it in the first place, gonna put the house near the hedgehog station and away from where the fox hangs out at night – unfortunately the one I’ve got now is where the fox hangs out. So very hopeful about Sweetpea, hopefully she will be around in my garden this spring and summer fingers crossed and she’ll have the sense to use the house.
Will need plenty of ideas of how to release her, and what I should do to entice her into the house. I could put a small bowl of dog meat in the tunnel and then remove quietly next day, that should do the trick, she is mad over dog meat.
The house has a thick wooden floor, raised up slightly with batons, it has a divider in – so the divide makes a tunnel, and then entrance into the nest – so would be protected from the wind, and it has a lid, so can check it in spring (to see if empty) and give it a good clean out. (whereas other one, I’d have to have the camera on it for a week or so, and then clean it if no action which isn’t ideal (would have to wait for weather to be quite hot to make sure I don’t disturb so might not be able to clean until may or june).
The other good news is I asked about volunteering saying I could do one day a week (fri or sat) and get there for 7am) to do the morning clean and feed, (the feed is probably for the young ones and the sick), but she said as she’s busy she hasn’t got the capacity to train someone new yet, but to give her a ring in 3 weeks time. So perhaps I might start volunteering there by the end of this year, or start beginning of next. I can’t wait.
And another thing, I told her about this forum, and she’s heard all about it. I said I get so much knowledge here which has really helped, and she said you can’t look after hedgehogs without having some knowledge about them – so this forum is really a life saver for people who end up looking after hedgehogs – all our discussions about mealworms, and discussions about poo, disturbing nests etc – it’s all crucially important, because our discussions could make the difference between life and death really.
BTW feel a bit guilty about being harsh about my mum, she does really like hedgehogs, and she’s the one who bought the wildlife camera, and she always wants to see the videos, and she always tells people at her church that I’m looking after the hedgehogs, and my brother and his wife and kids are interested in hearing about my tales, it just that family annoy from time to time, but I love them really. And in reality, my mum would help me out, but she’d just moan about it on the way.
