
Hedgehog Cabin
@HedgehogCabin • 39,339 subscribers
I operate a small hospital for sick, injured and orphaned wild hedgehogs. Donate https://t.co/wUQRQfPo5i Wishlist https://t.co/4UZ0T2FlAL Ambassador: @DrAmirKhanGP
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A surprise visitor to my garden. It's 4.30 in the morning, the end of a hard night's foraging, and this poor badger mum is going home to her hungry cubs empty handed. Again. Badgers don't want to come into gardens. It's a massive risk to get that close to humans. This is an act of profound desperation. She tried digging for worms (which make up 80% of a badger's diet), but the prolonged drought has left the soil baked dry and barren. The hedgehog feeders were inaccessible and the cat food had all been eaten by the visiting fox family. She stay for half an hour and left as starving as she arrived. If a hedgehog had been accessible she would have risked being wounded, just to eat and feed her cubs. Badgers do NOT hunt hedgehogs, but a starving animal will eat anything to stay alive. But it's NOT natural. In fact it's no more natural than starving third world children eating mud. Or prisoners of war eating pebbles. Or victims of a mountain plane crash eating each other. These are acts of desperation. It's eat this or die. And why hedgehogs? Why not cats or fox cubs - a much safer and more satisfying meal? Simply because cats and foxes run away, hedgehogs don't. And badgers are foragers, not hunters. You don't need a degree in zoology to know that. Just your own common sense. Don't believe the perverts who enjoy hurting animals, or the callous dishonest farmers. Believe your own eyes. Just look at that low, squat body and lumbering gait: built for low-gravity stability while digging, and moving through dense undergrowth. Not for chasing down prey. Look at the small head and downward facing eyes: perfect for focusing on the ground directly in front of their nose to locate worms and insects, but giving them a very limited field of view for spotting or tracking moving animals. And take a look at those short stumpy legs: designed for power and endurance while excavating setts and turning over soil, making them incapable of the speed or agility required by true hunters. The physical traits you can see with your own eyes are the textbook definition of a specialised fossorial (digging) forager, not a predator. Because of this specific anatomy, badgers lack the biological machinery to actively hunt or target other mammals. They are overwhelmingly, scientifically, anatomically, blatantly obvious ground-level foragers. The idea that badgers systematically track or target hedgehogs is a narrative pushed by groups looking to justify culls, rather than an accurate description of badger biology. In reality, a badger's daily life revolves around patiently snuffling through the soil for worms and grubs, and any departure from this is a rare, situational event born of sheer desperation. So please remember this, next time some deviant shows you a hedgehog pelt, seeking your validation and inciting hatred towards these innocent animals.
Hedgehog Cabin24,571 просмотров • 2 дней назад

As we enter yet another week of drought conditions please, I beg you, put out water for the wildlife. They have nothing. No puddles. No ponds. No streams. All have dried up. Sometimes the birds are thought of and provided for. But the nocturnal animals go unseen. Unthought of. No kind dishes. Just the tantalising smell of water from a pond they may drown in, or a drain they may get trapped in. Or a stagnant, dirty old birdbath they may get fatal fluke from. Hedgehogs need to drink a lot of water to stay healthy. Please provide clean, fresh, safe, ground level water each evening for our precious nocturnal wildlife. Tap water is best. Pop a dish or two out tonight. Dying of thirst is a terrible, painful way to die. It should never happen to any animal, and certainly not in a country that has the safest tap water in the world. The few minutes it takes you to fill a dish will make the difference between life and death.❤️
Hedgehog Cabin94,765 просмотров • 15 дней назад

Two minutes is all it took. Between me leaving the water for wildlife and the birds mobbing it. Just look at their delight!😍 Drinking and bathing - all that joy from just a turn of the tap from me. This week will be very hot and most natural sources of water have dried up. Please provide water for our wildlife. Day and night. You'll never find an easier, more satisfying way to save a life.
Hedgehog Cabin154,077 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад

A trail cam not only allows you to keep an eye on your hedgehog house, and its occupant's health. Even now, while your hedgehog hibernates, you'll discover all sorts of secret goings on in that nice tucked away undisturbed corner of your garden. (Footage here taken with a Victure HC100 Mini Wildlife Camera 16MP 1080P, around £42).
Hedgehog Cabin294,849 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад

As we enter yet another week of drought conditions please, I beg you, put out water for the animals. Our nocturnal wildlife is dying of thirst. A terrible, painful way to die. And you hold the solution, the cure. A turn of the tap will save a life.🚰 So get out your casserole pot lids, your flan dishes, your old baking trays - anything that is shallow and wide and not easily tipped. It doesn't matter what it looks like, this is an emergency. Put them out at dusk, front and back garden. Your local charity shop will have loads of suitable water dishes - so with one simple act of kindness you can benefit so many.🥰 Keep them clean. Keep them full. Keep them coming. Please share this to save a life today.
Hedgehog Cabin43,008 просмотров • 29 дней назад

Solomon and Marshall have finished their course of ringworm treatment baths but still have a few stubborn mange scabs. Normally I would soften them by the daily application of Thursdays Plantation Tea Tree cream, but Solomon in particular hates the smell, so here I'm using pure aloe vera gel instead. It's very labour intensive as you can imagine, but it works extremely well, and nothing worth having comes easy.🥰
Hedgehog Cabin284,982 просмотров • 11 месяцев назад

Orphaned baby Keto has a family!🥰 I'm delighted to say that dear little Keto responded very well to treatment and is now more than double his admission weight. This poor little scrap is now well nourished, his skin has recovered, and he's grown new spines and fur. Isn't that amazing? His broken leg is well on the mend too, and Keto hardly limps at all now. But best of all, this poor orphaned baby has a family. I released him into the winter cabin where he first self admitted, and where Anya and her babies still live. Anya ignored him, as all good mums of weaned babies would, and her boys accepted him as a long lost brother, sharing their food and bed with him. Keto's history:
Hedgehog Cabin13,627 просмотров • 11 дней назад

There was a terrible smell coming from pen number 4, in the lodge. I knew no one was living there, because nothing had moved; it was spotless still from the last clean, and the food in there had been untouched for 3 days. When I opened the house, where the terrible smell was coming from, I found Arthur. Laying on his side, dying from a severely infected wound to his head. He was lying in a puddle of stinking pus, and had been lying like that, unable to move or eat or drink for 3 days. The pain just too much for him. This darling boy who, just 3 weeks ago, had been successfully treated and rid of the lungworm which was killing him, made fit and well and shining with health and released back into the wild. This darling boy, who had made us laugh with his gentle persistent moves on the girl of his dreams. This sweet gentle boy, who had left the safety of home, led by his hormones to neighbouring gardens, where he had been casually dealt a death blow by someone strimming grass that offended their eye by growing wild and free where they demanded order and obedience. As I carried Arthur into the hospital, I swatted away flies, hungry for the smell of death on him. I've drained a massive abscess and started him on antibiotics and pain relief. I really have no idea if he can overcome this, it's just a matter of time, and waiting. I'm just so grateful (and deeply touched) that this poor boy used the last of his strength to get home, where he knew he'd be safe. Please. Don't strim.
Hedgehog Cabin621,090 просмотров • 2 лет назад

The ground has been baked so dry and rock hard that the Red Kites are coming down in my garden to eat the leftover cat food I put out for the foxes. Earthworms and beetles make up a major part of a red kite's diet and, just like our hedgehogs, they can starve in prolonged hot dry weather. Their natural prey is inaccessible, as it has burrowed deep down into the earth, where the soil is still moist. Our hedgehogs are now starving too, so as well as clean water, please put out a dish of dry cat/kitten food each evening. Any type or flavour, as long as meat is the first listed ingredient. Thank you.❤️
Hedgehog Cabin40,916 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

My original water tub was always so busy, with animals queuing up to use it, that I put out a second tub on the other side of the dried out stream. That too was quickly mobbed by thirsty wildlife. And of course my little squirrel photobomber found me.🥰 Please provide water for wildlife.
Hedgehog Cabin47,083 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

Hedgehogs can live as long as dogs. But the sad reality is, very few are lucky enough to see their third birthday. Vinnie is a rare exception. Although it's impossible to accurately age a hedgehog, I would say he's close to 10 years old. This clever, resourceful old boy has managed to survive the odds. But now he needs help. Sweet old Vinnie has every ailment a hedgehog can suffer from. Aside from having roundworm and lungworm, his skin is in a dreadful state, so I'm spraying him daily with a cooling, moisturing medication, and bathing him every 3rd day in a treatment for his ringworm and scabies. This bath is warm and slightly oily, so it soothes his itching and relieves his tight dry skin.
Hedgehog Cabin409,521 просмотров • 1 год назад

Despite claims to the contrary, snap rat traps don't conveniently land on the neck, killing quickly. More often than not they land on the legs, or one paw, or in baby hedgehog Odette's case, across the pelvis. It takes days for the trapped animal to die, in agony, starving, dehydrating. The will to live is strong in all animals and the trapped struggle for their lives, sometimes degloving entire paws or feet. It's a barbaric, utterly inhumane device. Little Odette (named after the crippled swan in Swan Lake), only 320g, was spotted by a lovely lady on her way to work, who called for advice. If not for this compassionate woman's swift actions this poor animal would have suffered a slow, torturous, agonising death. Once here, I saw the rat trap was not legal, the apertures were too big (the maximum for a tunnel type trap is 51cm, and this was 65cm), and my keys didn't fit so I called the company and they kindly sent someone over from Surrey. There's no sound on this camera, and my gesticulating is me telling the man to be gentle (he'd assumed the hedgehog was dead, and was shocked she had survived and was still alive), and that the size of the entry hole is a legislative violation - making the harm done to Odette a wildlife crime. Miraculously I couldn't feel any breaks, and her circulation is intact. There's a lot of bruising, swelling and tenderness, but although it's only been one full day, I'm cautiously optimistic for dear baby Odette's recovery.
Hedgehog Cabin32,521 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

If anyone knows these boys, who stole a tub of water (labelled "Water for Wildlife, Please Do Not Remove") from the dehydrated desperate wildlife in the Phoenix Green woods on Dilly Lane, Hartley Wintney, at 7pm last night, and stole the small bird's water dish, and destroyed the safety ramp from the tub, please explain to them that this isn't a game. This water is the difference between life and death to these poor animals. It broke my heart this morning to watch footage of these desperate animals searching the ground where the life saving water was. And watching small birds, whose own water dish had been stolen, trying and failing to get to the water left in the tub - seeing it but unable to safely reach it. Please share this on other social media platforms. Please don't be angry or rude to these children, we all did bad stuff when we were kids. But they need to understand the consequences of their thoughtless actions. We must teach kindness and tolerance to animals.
Hedgehog Cabin202,242 просмотров • 1 год назад

Don't worry if your resident hedgehog comes out to splat outside her house during the day. Healthy hogs may come out from their nest for a breather on very hot days, but will always stay nearby in the shade, under cover. Hedgehogs only have sweat pores on the skin of their tummy, where blood flow is closest to the surface. Splatting - laying their tummy on a cool surface - will lower the temperature of the passing blood, thus cooling the hedgehog. Leaving a dish of water in the border, tucked under the shrubbery, will make it safer and easier for them to stay hydrated.❤️
Hedgehog Cabin14,604 просмотров • 22 дней назад

This is the importance of hedges. If you have them, please keep them. Unlike fences they won't blow down, won't ever need painting or mending, and they protect and sustain our precious wildlife. This is Arthur at dawn, leaving Hedgehog Cabin where there are over 20 houses and pens, all warm and dry and safe with food nearby, to sleep away the day in my neighbour's hedge. Even though they have a dog. That's how important they are. Under that hedge, where the sun never reaches, the air is cool and dry, but fresh. Nature's rare and perfect atmosphere we can never imitate.
Hedgehog Cabin285,834 просмотров • 2 лет назад

Anya's babies were born here on 10th June, so they're 3.5 weeks old now. This is the exact age that most 'abandoned' babies come into rescue, and here's why. It's 6.30am, the sun is up and it's daylight so mum has gone to bed for the day, (but it's still a bit too dark in the hospital for the cameras). She's in her own nest, away from her babies. She's left her precious babies sleeping safely in the maternity nest for the day, to encourage their transition from diurnal to nocturnal, and to wean them off daytime feeds from her. But for one little baby who should be asleep, it's just too exciting having ears and eyes that work, and teeth that are starting to erupt. He just can't wait. So with mum away, he sneaks out to have a little explore... All what you see here is happening in the safety of the mother and baby unit here at the hospital. But now imagine this happening in the wild. How easy it is for the baby to take the wrong turn. For mum not to hear. For a human to come and pick the baby up before mum has a chance to retrieve him. This is why it's so important that the first thing you do when you see a tiny baby out is to stop, stand still, keep your eyes on him from a distance, and ring a good rescue for advice. They will ask all the right questions and will be able to remotely assess the situation, and advise what actions, if any, need to be taken. Put the number of your local trusted hedgehog rescue in your phone now, ready, just in case.🥰
Hedgehog Cabin23,059 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

Something lovely and happy to start the week - baby Odette is now walking perfectly normally!😍 She's no longer dragging her leg and is planting that foot solidly. Her gait is now normal, not even a trace of a limp. What a miracle!🥹 She's still too small to release and while she's here growing she'll have internal parasite treatments, so she'll return to the wild in tip top shape. Odette's history:
Hedgehog Cabin16,481 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

Little baby Jess arrived this morning dying of starvation. Now she can smell food she's desperately biting the dish, not having seen a dish before and not realising that's not part of the food. Jess had been seen wandering around an artificial lawn, hopelessly searching the plastic grass for anything to eat, to stop the pain of starvation. For two days. This isn't cruelty or malice. It's ignorance. Treating the garden as an extension of the house; just another inanimate space to decorate and ornament, instead of the living, breathing nurturing larder and home to wildlife that it is, means you are killing animals like Jess. Without even touching them. Literally starving them out of existence. Jess's finder was devastated when she realised, and has been sent home with a pack of Iams kitten food and a dish for any siblings that may still be alive. Please leave at least some of your garden natural, and provide clean water, for the sake of Jess and all the other struggling animals.
Hedgehog Cabin99,920 просмотров • 1 год назад