Hedgehog Bottom, Berkshire

Hedgehog Bottom is a small charity hedgehog rescue taking in sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs, rehabilitating them, and then getting them back to the wild where they belong.

‘Starting in 2006/7 with a single baby hedgehog that was in trouble, vast amounts of research and networking later and that single hoglet has grown into a full-blown hedgehog hospital that deals with 700+ wild hedgehogs each year. In addition, we are now a reluctant re-homing centre for abandoned exotic hedgehogs which are bred, kept and abused as pets.

In 2010 we were given a grant to buy a Brinsea TLC-4 and a TLC-5M incubator and over the past 6 years they have been in pretty much constant use with litters of abandoned babies that must be kept warm at all times as well as badly injured adults, or adults with severe respiratory problems. The units quickly became one of our indispensables and last year the trustees began to raise concerns that they were getting a bit long in the tooth. Knowing that we were heading towards our busy season, funding was sought and obtained for two brand new TLC-50 Advance Intensive Care units.

From the moment they arrived they were a hit. The volunteers love the ease of cleaning and deep sterilising them. We have been able to relegate our old nebulisation chamber – posh word for crate with hole in side – to the store shed as we can use the Advance instead with no need to disturb the patients by moving them. Baby hedgehogs not only need the correct temperature, they need the right humidity too as they can dehydrate very quickly. We sought assistance for, and obtained, the additional humidity pump which is now permanently attached to one of the TLC-50s although we have found for most patients the inbuilt reservoir is more than sufficient.

We are delighted with the look of the units which are clean and professional and if we have any complaint at all about them it’s that we are unable to stack them as we could with the old units.

Our original ‘old faithfuls’, the TLC-4 and the TLC-5s, were now mostly just gathering dust so rather than let them go to waste we donated them to other rescues where they are now in full use again helping not just hedgehogs but sick and injured birds too.

Gill Lucraft

Hedgehog Bottom