In September 2014 the rescue received emails from an RSPCA branch in the South East of the UK. They had found a cardboard box stuffed underneath a hedge outside of their building, luckily the staff noticed something was wrong and this wasn’t just discarded rubbish, inside was in fact 6 hedgehogs.

They contacted us and asked for our help, of course we done what we could and the closest foster carer travelled over an hour just to collect these hedgehogs.

Fortunately they managed to rehome two hedgehogs themselves before we got there and from what we heard one of hedgehogs even had babies. We hope that they found good knowledgeable homes.

So then the 4 hedgehogs left were collected and taken back to the foster carer’s home, two hedgehogs staying with her and two going to another local foster carer to ease the load of 4 hogs at once.

All four of them were absolutely filthy, all had mites and two of them had problems with upset stomachs. A few days and a good wash later and they earned their new identities and we learnt their personaility traits;

       Orinoco – The lazy and greedy one

       Bungo – The bossy but excitable one

       Gretchen – The jumpy, grumpy & rather large hog

       Tyson – The smallest of them all but friendly hog

As we slowly started to sort out their poor health and get them being more confident around humans again, there was definitely one big problem – Gretchen. She was overweight and a rather porky looking hog, assuming it was her previous diet she was put on a controlled diet with variety of fruits and vegetables.

Two weeks on and her weight had not changed for the better – it was the exact same and not a gram less. Her newspaper floor and food was changed that evening but as Gretchen was fast asleep in her bed she was not disturbed. Later that same evening the foster carer asked for peoples opinions on a strange sound she seemed to be making, very small squeaky noises. You guessed it, she had given birth to some hoglets!

So an anxious wait of two week wait followed, no peeping or disturbing the nest where mummy hog Gretchen and her babies slept. When the two weeks had passed three small hoglets appeared! Three little spikey girls. Unfortunately when checking the nest two other very small hoglets hadn’t made it for various reasons beyond our control. But the 3 girls were fit and healthy and growing very quickly!

Not wanting to get too attached they didn’t get named until 3 weeks old – Dotty, Babs & Fleur.

In December 2014 the first hoglet was rehomed – Fleur. She moved from Suffolk to wales and she travelled = over 270 miles to her new home.

In January Dotty now named Grace moved to Cheshire and the last hoglet Babs now named Holly moved to Nottingham.

Tyson (one of the suspected potential dads) & Gretchen also got new homes!

Tyson now lives right next door to a zoo! Imagine that, your nextdoor neighbour is an elephant! Gretchen moved down South to be with her new loving family which she definitely deserves.

March 2015 and Bungo has just been adopted! He has also gone to a loving new home.

Orinoco is still currently looking for his forever home, but we are sure that the right family will come along soon to adopt him.

We wish all of our hogs the best of luck in their new homes & hope they stay in contact.

We are so very thankful for our supporters for donating to the National Exotic Hedgehog Rescue Service – without these much needed donations we would be unable to treat any of the hedgehogs coming in. Thank you for your support.