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Often I hear people say, "I know I have hedgehogs because I see empty snail shells." Hedgehogs don't eat slugs and snails. They eat caterpillars, beetles, larvae, grubs and a few insects. Slugs and snails carry lungworm, deadly to all mammals, including hedgehogs. If you see empty snail shells...

23,055 просмотров • 11 месяцев назад •via X (Twitter)

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This is the pen of Leah, the morning after her first night's sleep here. Every black dot you see is a tick. They are black because they're full of her blood, and growing. (This is one of the reasons why I have only white bedding and floor coverings. If she was in newspaper you'd never see this). Poor little Leah is absolutely smothered in hundreds of ticks, and has fleas, too. Despite the old wives' tale, it's very rare for a hedgehog to have fleas. So rare in fact, that a professor of entomology who studies these sorts of things pays me £20 a go when I send him fleas. Additionally, hedgehog fleas are species-specific, so they can't infest or live on any other animal. A hedgehog has to be seriously ill or incredibly weak to attract ectoparasites such as ticks and fleas. And poor Leah is that weak - she is suffering from starvation, AND she has just given birth. A couple clearing out their shed found poor little Leah huddled with her babies in a pile of blankets, where she'd given birth. They live in army barracks, and their garden is tiny, with no suitable hedgehog habitat. Everywhere is kept 'neat'. Despite this, somehow Leah survived. With a shed substituting for a hedgerow and army blankets instead of leaves and moss, Leah managed to make a maternity nest and have her precious babies. But with no food, she was unable to produce enough milk to feed them, and one by one, the babies died. By the time she was found, out of the 7 babies she had given birth to, only 3 were still alive. I saw the bodies so could tell how many days they had survived. The lovely finders had no idea that things were so desperate for our hedgehogs, and that the dramatic decline in insects, due to the way we are 'tidying' our gardens, meant that they are now suffering starvation. Hedgehogs don't eat slugs and snails, they eat beetles and catapillars. Caterpillars make up almost half a hedgehog's diet, and their emergence is perfectly timed with peak baby season, the time of most need. We're in June, peak butterfly time, but how many have you seen lately? Like most people, the finders were completely unaware of how our bad destructive habits are impacting our precious wildlife, until seeing it with their own eyes. They are now committed to improving not just their garden, but the whole Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and went home armed with leaflets and kitten biscuits and determination. Meanwhile poor tick infested Leah and her 3 surviving babies are safe and warm here, and she's getting good nourishment and care. It's so important these tiny 5 day old babies don't fall victim to the ticks, as they would not survive. I can't use drugs or chemicals as Leah is far too weak and her babies far too vulnerable. So it's just a matter of cleaning her out every day - the very last thing to be subjecting a new mum to. Despite all her hardship, and me meddling, she's a wonderful mum and doing her best to nurture her sweet babies. Last night, her first night here, she ate an entire dish of special Mother and Baby food - enough normally for 2 or 3 hedgehogs. The sight of that empty dish absolutely broke me. It's too early for a prognosis on Leah and the babies, but already, because of them, her little part of the world is going to become more hedgehog-friendly.

Hedgehog Cabin

81,560 просмотров • 2 лет назад