We have had some very busy nights in the garden lately and I will post up a few videos after I catch up on what has been going on.
First off our little Harry2..... Well as you can see from these photos he is much much better.
His wound is healed very nicely and now we are waiting on his fur and spines to grow back in.
He is weighing in around 1150 grams and is on a maintenance diet. I am trying very hard not to give into his sweet little begging eyes and feed him more, as I don't want him to be overweight. At the moment we are bringing him in during the night to his cage, as I don't want him causing himself a mischief during the night out in the pen. I don't want him rubbing his poor head or nose on the bars or having the chance of another hedgehog poking him with their spines on his fresh new skin. So we will continue this for a bit longer and then we will let him have a bit of time in the pen and then hopefully he will move to his new home soon. I will definitely miss this little chap as he is so sweet and chunters to me. :)
We released Harry1 into the garden and I was a little bit worried about him being overweight. But he has been steadily loosing some or I should say converting the fat to muscle. :) He dashes about here and there and on his first night out he met the girls!!! So he is having a really super time in the garden. We didn't see him on the camera last night, but that isn't anything to worry about as I am sure he is somewhere curled up snoozing or busy having fun being a hedgehog and doing hedgehog things.
We haven't seen Tiny for a few days now so not sure where he has gone off to. But he does know the area as he comes from here. He too was a bit overweight, but was slimming down with his nightly forays out and about. It is good to know that when they get hungry they do return and know that we have fresh food and water for them and they can top up.
As I mentioned the girls are out and about. We still haven't definitely identified Holly or Millie yet. And they well could be elsewhere nearby. But we have identified Suzy our little one eyed lady hog and Henrietta. Henrietta was having a bit of a hard time and was looking a bit thin, so we brought her in for a bit of TLC and I had the chance to worm her. She will be released this Sunday night in the garden. She was around 400grams but is now over 700 grams and ready to get back out in the garden and doing hedgehog things. :)
So far we have identified, Brutus, Gus, Tyler, First(Headly), a new hedgehog to the garden Mr. Stripey Bottom(who could be one we had brought in before our camera), Spikey, Henrietta, Tiny, Harry1, Suzy and our little wayward Alex. We had a very exciting morning watching the video yesterday. Tyler has been trying to seduce Suzy, and the night before was interrupted by First. Videos to follow of his courtship. Well yesterday's video that we won't be posting due to modesty, Tyler succeeded. So hopefully we will have the patter of little hoggie paws this summer. Anyway, Suzy was in hogwarts and Tyler had joined her there. Then all of a sudden another one eyed hog appeared! Brian thought that Suzy had done a Houdini act and some how escaped Hogwarts and was now feeding in the tunnel. But then we saw Suzy leave Hogwarts! My heart jumped, could it be Alex!!!! It was. He even still has faint markings that we placed on him before his release. He looks a bit small, but fit and healthy and very feisty!
And along with this excitement of Alex's return, Tyler and Suzy mated. Again hoping for little hoggies this summer. And then Spikey seemed to go through Puberty and become an adult too. He started rushing about like a thing possessed and instead of being the whipping boy, he started rumbling with the other boys!!! The tables had turned. Spikey biffed Alex, after Alex had biffed him. Then he had a go at Harry and even First. We are unsure if there is like a hierarchy in the males or a pecking order of who wins the rumbles. Usually the younger smaller ones will just curl up and let the bigger older males do the pushing around. Once the aggressor is finished they usually uncurl and go on about their business. We have seen Spikey being on the end of this treatment since his return to the garden. And then there was this transformation over night of him becoming an equal to the others.
I managed to bring in Suzy last night and give her the once over. She had a few ticks on her that needed removing and some fleas too. I put her back out into the garden, but may well bring her in, once we have a free cage to put her in. She sounds a bit rattly and that could be Lungworms. So I will worm her and get rid of them so she and her babies can have a good healthy start.
I also haven't been bringing in alot of them at night because I have an injury to my right hand. We have had a stray female cat who was here once before take up residence in the garden. We know who she belongs to, so I tried to catch her. Big mistake. I should have had my gloves on when I attempted. She got me with her back claws and my right middle finger on the top has a gash in it almost to the bone. I have been keeping it extremely clean and trying hard not to use it and cause the wound to open. But it is difficult. And I am treating my wound with some of the same things that I treated Harry2's wound with. It is healing, and I now have some rubber gloves to put on when I deal with the hoggies, so I can start bringing in some more to check.
We did manage to catch her and take her home, but this morning on the camera there was a black cat again..... I really hope they haven't let her out again!!! We don't need her about the garden when the babies arrive and she is eating their food! Besides frightening our squirrel and birds. :(
That is about it so far, I did have a call from a lady about a hog, but she didn't show up, so I don't know what has happened there. Also a friend nearby is looking after a few and has a sickly one in at the moment. Sounds like Lungworms again with her and she didn't come out of hibernation at a good weight. We think she could have pneumonia too. Fingers crossed for her. This is why I am a cage down as I have loaned it to her to look after her two newest hogs.
Okay off to rest the finger now, as it is aching a bit. Watch out for the videos to be posted here, or you can always go check them out on YouTube, under Mr. Jinglecat. :)
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