young dead Hedgehog.

[demicav]

Last week there was a dead Hedgehog at the top of our street, when the weather was really cold. It was very tiny with no obvious injuries. It's almost as if it literally froze to death. Would they be in hibernation now ?

[mrs fish]

If they are small then they can't hibernate as they need to keep eating, I have seen two dead in the last week. It was a mild late summer/autumn and they have been born too late

[naturelover]

we all thought this would happen,its our stupid weather one day warm next freezing what do we exspect.

[mystic meg]

Hi , These little hedghogs were probably from late litters, born in October, they dont have chance to lay down enough fat to get them through the winter, they probably died of hypothermia when we had all that cold weather. We are still taking in more of these little prickly balls, we have over a 100 in now, their weights range from 200g up to 450g. Some of them are very poorly when they arrive and yes sadly we have lost a few. At this time of year they suffer badly from lung worm, which can also cause gut infections, so you have to actquickly at the first sign of pale green mucous stools, we treat them with antibiotic and when they are well enough we worm them. Most of the adult H/hogs would have gone into hybernation by now, but as soon as there is a mild spell out they come again, for a quick top up!

[Wild-Woman]

Hello MM can you give me an idea of the best hibernation weight for a hedgehog please. We have a young, fairly small one in a environment area, that we are feeding, have provided a very nice hibernation home in and sheltered it from wind and rain. It's still very active but I'd bring it to a rescue centre if it's too underweight.
Jules

[mystic meg]

Hi Wild-women,
The base weight for we go by for hibernating h/hogs is 650g, just under 1lb 8oz, some rehabers say 450g but we think that is too low, when h/hogs are released they usually lose weight while trying to establish a territory and can lose upto 227g. If you have a hedgehog thats still visiting your garden and you are feeding it, if you catch it and weigh it and it weighs no less than 550g it will probably be ok, anything under that will need some help, you could do it yourself or your nearest wildlife centre should be able to help you. Hope that helps.

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by mystic meg

Hi Wild-women,
The base weight for we go by for hibernating h/hogs is 650g, just under 1lb 8oz, some rehabers say 450g but we think that is too low, when h/hogs are released they usually lose weight while trying to establish a territory and can lose upto 227g. If you have a hedgehog thats still visiting your garden and you are feeding it, if you catch it and weigh it and it weighs no less than 550g it will probably be ok, anything under that will need some help, you could do it yourself or your nearest wildlife centre should be able to help you. Hope that helps.

Excellent. Thanks very much for that. I'll see if I can weigh it tomorrow. Hopefully it will be ok and that will put my mind at rest. If not, I'll get to a centre that can get it up to speed and reintroduce it back to it's original environment when it's fit.
Thanks again.
Jules

[mrs fish]

They are easy to look after yourself, our local wildlife rescuer has been inundated with small hedgehogs this year, he collected 9 one day this week, I may take another one or two on

One of the hogs rescued was small and being attacked by magpies, hopefully it will survive.