Goodbye Guy
As many of you know, Kevin and I have been fostering a little hedgehog named Guy. We foster, for short periods of time, animals that come into Harper Asprey Wildlife Centre who are too small to be released, or who require specialized care.
Guy came into the rescue centre when he was one day old - he was found in a bonfire, prior to it being lit. The mother must have removed the other babies, but didn’t have time to come back and get Guy. Hedgehogs don’t imprint much on humans like other baby animals can so we do not have to worry about backing away from them after they are weaned.
His prickles hadn’t even had time to come through the skin at one day old. He was tiny and Anne fed him a dog’s milk formula with a tiny syringe.
We took him in when he was one month old - he had just started being weaned and he was taking food mashed up in dog’s milk formula.
He was a wonderful hedgehog and he had a lot of personality!!! What a sweetie! :-) We get a couple hundred hedgehogs into the centre every year.
We took him back last week to the centre. He was taken to meet Brian May the next day and he will be introduced into our soft release program at Brian’s house. We get the hedgehogs ready for release by allowing them to live outside for a while and we feed them. Then we leave the door to the cage open or put them in gardens of people who want hedgehogs. We make sure they have shelter and only stop feeding them when they start to be able to scavenge on their own.
A hedgehog has to be 700 grams before we can release them - any weight less than that and they are prone to not survive and certainly can’t hibernate. Guy was 930 grams when we took him in last week.
:-D
I really miss the little hedgie, but he was not a pet. He was always meant to be released back into the wild where he belongs.
Anyway, here are two of the last photos I have had taken of me and Guy.
Goodbye little one. I miss you but I hope you have a wonderful life.
Guy came into the rescue centre when he was one day old - he was found in a bonfire, prior to it being lit. The mother must have removed the other babies, but didn’t have time to come back and get Guy. Hedgehogs don’t imprint much on humans like other baby animals can so we do not have to worry about backing away from them after they are weaned.
His prickles hadn’t even had time to come through the skin at one day old. He was tiny and Anne fed him a dog’s milk formula with a tiny syringe.
We took him in when he was one month old - he had just started being weaned and he was taking food mashed up in dog’s milk formula.
He was a wonderful hedgehog and he had a lot of personality!!! What a sweetie! :-) We get a couple hundred hedgehogs into the centre every year.
We took him back last week to the centre. He was taken to meet Brian May the next day and he will be introduced into our soft release program at Brian’s house. We get the hedgehogs ready for release by allowing them to live outside for a while and we feed them. Then we leave the door to the cage open or put them in gardens of people who want hedgehogs. We make sure they have shelter and only stop feeding them when they start to be able to scavenge on their own.
A hedgehog has to be 700 grams before we can release them - any weight less than that and they are prone to not survive and certainly can’t hibernate. Guy was 930 grams when we took him in last week.
:-D
I really miss the little hedgie, but he was not a pet. He was always meant to be released back into the wild where he belongs.
Anyway, here are two of the last photos I have had taken of me and Guy.
Goodbye little one. I miss you but I hope you have a wonderful life.