Baby hedgehogs wrap up for winter

Angela Fenton, 53, was shocked when she found the ‘hoglets’ wandering around in broad daylight outside her Elm Avenue home.

She saved the babies from a grisly fate as they wandered towards the road.

The tiny hoglets were disorientated and desperate for food, and with the only open animal sanctuary in the area already filled to the brim with needy hedgehogs, mum-of-five Angela decided to take the babies into her own home.

Since then, she says she has been amazed by the support she has received from the Poulton community.

She said: “I am overwhelmed by the generosity of people helping me care for the hedgehogs.”

Angela, who works at Victoria Hospital in Blackpool, has received money donations to go towards buying dog food, meaty cat biscuits and dried meal worms for the ‘autumn juveniles’ – young hedgehogs too small to survive the cold winter months alone.

She said: “One man actually came round to my house with a chicken coop which he thought might be useful for housing them. Another man gave me £20 when I saw him in the street saying he wanted to help take care of them.

“I’ve even had offers to ‘hedgehog babysit’ for when I go away on holiday.”

The hedgehogs need to be kept warm throughout the winter to stop them going into hibernation and starving to death.

Luckily one good samaritan donated three miniature woolly hats for the hoglets – affectionately nicknamed Cheeky, Sleepy and Greedy by Angela to match their different personalities.

“The biggest one is Sleepy, and he sleeps all the time,” she said. “The other two run straight out when I come to feed them. Greedy goes straight in – and Cheeky pushes him out of the way with his nose.”

Angela is now on the look-out for a vet willing to provide flea and worm treatment to keep the hoglets in top form until they can be released into the wild next March.

“So far I’ve not had much luck as they are classed as wild animals,” she said. “But at the end of the day they are still an animal and a cute one at that!”