Rescued hedgehog, but was it a mother?

[Lakers93]

Hi.

Today we saw a hedgehog that was out in the back garden around 11am and had flies hanging around it/landing on it. After googling what this meant we gently placed it in a pet carrier and the flies just followed even thirty yards away.

It didn’t look fully grown and it had partially white spines – like halfway up the spine it was brown, the upper half white.

We saw that the hedgehog had an injured ear – it looked swollen or something, when I compared it to the other ear, it looked totally different, and there was a tick on the healthy ear side.

We phoned the RSPCA and gave it to the vets. My question is, was this a mother hog and there’s a nest in our garden with the babies in it?

[stef]

To be honest even if it did have babies it sounds like it would have been unable to care for them. The vet or carer should be able to check the hog to see if it’s pregnant, lactating or male.
You did the right thing rescuing it.
Keep a listen out in your garden near where it was in the evening ( virtually impossible while the birds are around ). Hoglets will call for mum once they get hungry. They give a little cheep – like a smoke detector that’s battery is failing, but not quite as loud

[Lakers93]

Yeah I’ll keep an ear out for them, as I said it didn’t seem fully grown so it might not have been a mother but just in case I will check. I’ll be phoning the vets tomorrow as well to see if they have an update.

Would you say the babies make the noise in early evening, late evening? On just generally the evening? Thanks.

[stef]

As soon as they get hungry and mum isn’t there. Eventually they would also abandon the nest in search of her
However to be honest I doubt it was pregnant from your description

[Author]

Posts