How to Feed Baby Hedgehog When Mother Won't

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A hedgehog is a spiny mammal with short legs that rolls up into a brawl when threatened. In nature, the adults alive past foraging in foliage litter for pocket-sized insects and grubs, and similar most mammals, the immature are nourished by milk for the kickoff few weeks of life. Very young hedgehogs (from a day or so old) tin can be hand-reared, although close attention needs to be paid to temperature, hygiene, and feeding.^[one]

1. i

   Use a hot water bottle to warm up your hedgehog. Away from its mother, your babe hedgehog is liable to lose heat quickly because of its large surface area. A chilled hedgehog is an inactive hedgehog that will apace go into a down spiral that results in decease.

   • A salubrious hedgehog should feel warm to your touch on or slightly warmer than your body temperature.

2. 2

   Fill a hot water bottle with boiled water and wrap it in at least 2 towels. Information technology's important to wrap the bottle considering direct contact with the heat could burn the hog.

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3. iii

   Identify the hedgehog on the wrapped hot water bottle. Cover it with a small-scale blanket, such as a dry face cloth, folded over, to forestall heat from escaping.

4. 4

   Check how warm the hedgehog feels with your finger. Once it feels slightly warmer than your ain peel, transfer it to a box with a heat source.

   • Be enlightened that overheating your hedgehog can cause claret clots to form in its apportionment, which is merely as dangerous as beingness as well cold.
   • Signs of overheating include gaping, or opening its mouth wide in gild to lose heat, floppiness when picked upwards and also feeling hot to the touch.
   • Never feed a cold hedgehog since they depend on trunk warmth to help with digestion.

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1. 1

   Utilise a small plastic aquarium or a small plastic pet carrying box. These are platonic as they can easily be disinfected and are non combustible.

2. 2

   Ready up a heat source to a higher place the box to keep the baby warm. A desk lamp is a good compromise, situated so that it shines simply above 1 end of the box.^[2]

   • Substitute the bulb for a red bulb so that the baby is not constantly blinded by the lite. Ruby bulbs commonly come in 20W, 25W, or 40W ratings.
   • Identify the rut source at one terminate of the box, which will allow the baby to move to the cooler end if it gets too hot.

3. 3

   Lay down absorbent bedding in the box that tin either exist disposed of or washed. A good choice is vetbed, which looks like faux sheepskin, and is designed to draw moisture, such every bit urine, abroad from the baby then that it doesn't sit down on any damp spots.

   • An alternative could be shredded newspaper, though keep in mind this could exist a fire risk.

4. four

   Create an area for your pig to hide in. A small cardboard box or the center from a toilet roll, depending on the size of the hedgehog baby, work well. These can also be tending of and replaced easily when soiled.^[3]

5. 5

   Encourage your hedgehog to become to the bathroom by stimulating its float. Infant hedgehogs exercise not empty their bladder and bowels unless stimulated to do so. If you don't do this, your hedgehog's bladder volition become uncomfortably total and information technology may develop urine overflow. This means its overfull bladder will spill over with urine, which volition then distill downwards the outside of its legs and scald its skin, making it more susceptible to a peel infection.

6. 6

   Soak a cotton ball in warm water, and squeeze out the excess water until the cotton ball is just clammy. Vigorously wipe the hedgehog's rear end until it urinates or moves its bowels.^[four]

   • This may take a few minutes.
   • Repeat this procedure earlier and after every feed, every bit these are the times when information technology is well-nigh probable to go to the bath.

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1. 1

   Be sure to handle your hedgehog from an early on age. If the hedgehog is orphaned, then start handling it immediately.^[5]

2. 2

   Always wash your hands before and after treatment your hedgehog. Think to also go on its bed clean past removing whatever soiled bedding, and disinfecting its box daily.

3. 3

   Gently stroke it in the management of its spine. You lot should also talk to your sus scrofa whenever you wipe its bottom or feed information technology.

   • If the babe is still with its mother, handling could crusade the dam to reject her baby. So minimize stroking until it spends time in a different part of the bed, abroad from its mother.

4. 4

   Feed the infant hedgehog with a feeder canteen designed for kittens, such every bit the Catac system, an eyedropper, or a 1ml syringe. If you are using a feeder bottle make sure it has a soft latex teat attached in the smallest size available.^[vi]

5. 5

   Disinfect the feeding apparatus after every feed. You can use a steam sterilizer, which is also used to disinfect baby bottles or a liquid sterilizing agent like Milton.^[7]

   • Milton should be diluted in h2o.
   • Immerse the feeding equipment in the solution for at to the lowest degree half an hour.
   • Rinse the equipment well with fresh water prior to use to remove any traces of the sterilizing agent.

6. 6

   Requite your baby hedgehog regular feeds of milk. Typically four meals a day is sufficient.

   • A suggested routine is an early morning feed, a lunchtime feed, a late afternoon feed, and a bedtime feed.
   • Don't forget to wipe your grunter's bottom earlier and after every feed!

7. 7

   Use goat's milk to feed an unweaned hedgehog. In an platonic earth, you lot would feed your hedgehog with hedgehog replacement milk, but this is non currently available.^[8]

   • Cow'due south milk is a poor substitute for hedgehog milk, just goat'southward milk is a passable alternative.

8. 8

   Warm the milk past immersing the container in hot water. Be certain to shake the milk regularly to mix information technology up.

   • Your hedgehog is programmed to expect warm milk from its female parent, so information technology volition likely refuse common cold milk.
   • Much like feeding a human baby, warm the milk to just in a higher place body temperature and test it by dropping some of the milk onto the back of your hand. If information technology feels pleasantly warm, the temperature is correct.

9. ix

   Place a drop of milk at the end of the teat on a bottle or an eye dropper. Hold it near the hedgehog's mouth.

   • If it doesn't smell the milk and have the hint, try touching the driblet of milk to its lips. If your hog is hungry, this will ordinarily trigger its suckling reflex.

10. ten

    Permit it suckle until its tummy is rounded and full. Once information technology is satisfied, information technology may lose interest and become sleepy.^[9]

    • If the milk flows too quickly from the teat, it will alluvion its mouth and spill out around its lips. The milk usually flows also speedily if the hole in the teat is too large, in which case, you should start over again with a fresh teat and a smaller hole.

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1. 1

   Start to wean the baby hedgehog when it is effectually 21 days of historic period. Exercise this by leaving solid nutrient in its box, which will give it an opportunity to test out the food past itself.

   • As information technology continues to grow and become hungry between milk feeds, the chance of supplementing its calorie intake with some hedgehog friendly morsels will be increasingly appealing to information technology.

2. two

   Use suitable foods for weaning. These include Farley'south rusk softened in goat's milk, apparently digestive biscuits softened with milk, good quality canned puppy food, wild plants such as dandelion, chickweed, or clover, and waxworm larvae or mealworms.^[10]

3. 3

   Pay attention to any discharge from your grunter's eyes or nose. Your babe hedgehog should have dry bright eyes, and a clean olfactory organ.

4. four

   Take it to a vet if it does not suckle at feeding time and is breathing quickly. Greedy hedgehog babies are prone to breathing in milk, which can cause pneumonia and requires handling with antibiotics.

5. 5

   Worm your hog with fenbendazole when it is near 4-half-dozen weeks erstwhile. Fenbendazole is sold equally Panacur and the liquid interruption version is the easiest manner to administer the wormer.

   • This wormer tin exist gently syringed into the hedgehog's oral fissure, giving it a chance to swallow each mouthful.^[xi]

6. 6

   Weigh your hedgehog to determine the right dosage of Panacur. Use a digital scale that is accurate for low weights.

   • A kitchen scales will do just line it well with a dispensable kitchen towel and disinfect it well subsequently weighing your pig. Hedgehogs can bear some diseases that don't make them sick but could infect people, such as salmonella, and then if you are worried about disease, dispose of the scales after weighing your hog.
   • The dose of Panacur is l mg for every 1 kg of body weight, repeated once a month.
   • An average hedgehog weighs betwixt 400-500 m, requiring 20 to 25 mg of Panacur in solution. This is equivalent to 0.2 to 0.25 ml of the ten% solution.^[12]

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1. 1

   Be aware which states consider information technology illegal to own a hedgehog. Currently, hedgehogs are prohibited animals in Maine, California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Hawaii - just this list is not exhaustive and changes regularly and then always cheque your state law first before buying a hedgehog.^[13]

   • Hedgehogs are illegal in some states considering some species tin transmit the highly infectious Foot and Oral fissure Disease.
   • As well, should the hedgehog escape into the wild, information technology could pose a theoretical take chances to cloven-footed animals (cattle, goats, sheep) and bear on local agriculture.

2. two

   Bank check with your state's Fish and Game department if y'all find a hedgehog. They will exist able to tell you lot whether the hedgehog is legal or illegal and whether yous need special permits to continue the grunter.^[14]

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Add New Question

• Question

  My hedgehog gave birth unexpectedly iii weeks ago, both babies are alive but ane is rather skinny is he going to be okay?

  

  Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinarian with over thirty years of feel in veterinarian surgery and companion animate being exercise. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the aforementioned animal clinic in her hometown for over xx years.

  

  Veterinarian

  Expert Answer

  It's difficult to say, only you lot can help by keeping the babies warm, and making sure the mother feels secure and is eating well.

• Question

  Can I just use a warm water bottle to warm him up practise I have to get a heat lamp?

  

  Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinarian with over 30 years of experience in veterinary surgery and companion animal practice. She graduated from the Academy of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the aforementioned brute dispensary in her hometown for over 20 years.

  

  Veterinary

  Expert Respond

  A hot water bottle wrapped in a towel is fine, but try to provide an area away from the hottie that the hog can motion to if they become also hot.

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