Brockworth Hedgehog Rescue

26/02/2025

Tonight saw our first Volunteer meeting of the year. With so many volunteers it’s a challenge communicating everything to everyone and as the rescue is run fully by volunteers we don’t have staff who are in daily to help with communicating.

Discussions tonight involved fundraising plans for the next couple of months, hedgehog awareness week, our open day on 11th May, our new website which is coming soon, record keeping and admin, and preparing everyone for the 2025 season starting in April/May when the hoggies start coming in in larger numbers.

Thank you to Tesco Brockworth for allowing us to use their community space to hold the meeting and providing us with tea and coffee.

18/02/2025

All set up at Tesco Brockworth today
We have crafting for the children in the community space and our stall at the front of the shop
Martha is here trying to behave herself
Which she does find very difficult 🦔❤️🦔
She has some little gifts she is handing out to the children crafting
Walk ins are available throughout the day
And she is back again on Thursday

16/02/2025

Our half term crafting is back at Tesco Brockworth on Tuesday and Thursday next week. We can take bookings or you can just turn up on the day.

Please be aware that your child must be accompanied by an adult at all times while crafting with us.

The crafting is provided by us and the space and refreshments are provided by Tesco. So please come along on Tuesday or Thursday

14/02/2025

Our stall will be in Tesco Brockworth tomorrow, and again on Tuesday and Thursday next week.

If you have contacted us about booking places for crafting, we will be going through and booking them all in over the next 24 hours.

Our half term crafting is back at Tesco Brockworth on Tuesday and Thursday next week. We can take bookings or you can just turn up on the day.

Please be aware that your child must be accompanied by an adult at all times while crafting with us.

The crafting is provided by us and the space and refreshments are provided by Tesco. So please come along on Tuesday or Thursday

10/02/2025

09/02/2025

This mornings clean out was full of munching.

With the mild December and January our numbers in the rescue are low where we have been able to release them back into the wild.

We’re all still busy preparing for our 2025 season. We have half term crafting this month in Tesco , We’re planning our rescue spring clean and will be looking to take on more volunteers once the season kicks in during April , so more information will follow on that.

03/02/2025

Little February came in over the weekend. She is on treatment for dehydration, Lungworm, Roundworm and Intestinal Fluke.

She is still in intensive care and we’re keeping everything crossed for her.

Over the weekend 3 Brockworth Hoggies went home 🦔🦔🦔

02/02/2025

NATIONAL HEDGEHOG DAY

With night visitors probably at their lowest in February it’s a good time to give the feeding station a good deep clean.

We all know how messy our hoggie visitors can be, and just like the recommendations to keep bird feeders clean it is also good to do the same with hedgehog feeding stations.

We recommend lining feeding stations with newspaper which needs to be changed daily, food and water bowls also need daily cleaning/disinfecting, as we all know their choice of gift to leave us in the bowls.

Over the years we have also seen an increase in feeding station aggression between hedgehogs so it is also good to scatter food around the garden to encourage natural foraging for food and decrease feeding agression.

For feeding we recommend a shallow bowl of water which needs fresh water daily and the bowl cleaned, they do like to get in the water bowls.

We recommend cat food both wet and dry, the flavour is not an issue they just tend to prefer the meat/poultry flavours, but if you have fish in the box mix it with a meat/poultry flavour and they will eat it. Most cat foods have fish ingredients in them due to the positives fish oils can do.

We also recommend Vale Wildlife Hospital and Brambles crunchy hedgehog food. (Both available on Amazon)

The above is all they need as please remember by leaving food out we’re supporting them not replacing their natural food. Which they will also be eating.

As a rescue we mix flavours to prevent them getting fussy while with us and only having the food we give, although we regularly get hoggies in where we’re told they will only eat a certain brand, this will not be the case as hogs will be visiting 12-14 gardens in a night so will be eating a variety of brands and flavours.

Foods not recommended to feed hedgehogs are mealworms, peanuts, sunflower hearts, eggs, fruit including dried fruits, raw meat, bread and milk.

01/02/2025

Huge thanks to our February calendar sponsor - Eevie and her business the Text Geek

Give her a call or email if she can help 🦔🦔🦔

01/02/2025

One of the main reasons we say not to feed peanuts to hedgehogs, and not just whole peanuts, even chopped peanuts are not good for them. Stick to either a wet/dry cat food or a meat based hedgehog food.

26/01/2025

With Valentine’s Day on the way, the rescue shop is full of gift ideas for a loved one who is hedgehog crazy.

We have some chocolate orange ( original, mint and milk chocolate) hedgehogs in red and other colours.

We have lots of mugs, coasters, slates, and lots of socks

Our shop is open daily between 9am and 1pm

25/01/2025

See in the comments for the houses he was stealing bedding from 🤣🤣🦔🦔

23/01/2025

Last week Vicki attended the 10th European Hedgehog Research Group Conference in Berlin.

Research is vital to rescues as we have seen a huge change in protocols since first starting 10 years ago, hedgehogs are hibernating less, are active more and coming into rescues so much sicker than in previous years.

The more we learn about them the better equipped we are to make decisions and treat them.

The conference had speakers from across Europe speaking about Conservation, Hibernation, Garden dangers, Parasites, viruses and diseases, food and feeding, and lots more involving all aspects of Hedgehogs across Europe.

Conferences are also a great opportunity to discuss practices and protocols with other rescues, meeting other rescues. It’s also a great way of finding out if things we’re seeing in the UK are being seen in Europe.

One thing from the conference was that 2024 was a bad year for our hoggies accross the UK and Europe with huge parasite burdens and hedgehogs coming into rescue so much sicker that we have seen before.

15/01/2025

We put together some displays for the party on Saturday night, just looking at how far we have come in the last 10 years.

Going through all the photos really does put it into perspective, the work involved, so many people working together to help our Hedgehogs.

The Brockworth Hedgehog Rescue family is continuing to grow as we help more hoggies year on year. We take on more volunteers and we need more space.

Let’s see where we will be in another 10 years 🦔🦔🎉🎉

15/01/2025

Thank you Abi for our Birthday card 🦔🦔

Vicki will be doing a 10th Birthday post once she has landed in Berlin, where she is attending the European Hedgehog Research Group Conference.

Running a rescue also means being totally up to date with that is being learnt about hedgehogs not just in the UK but across Europe. This can help rescues to give the best care with the most up to date information.

10 years and still learning every day.

14/01/2025

A lovely write up about our Birthday from Will

2015 was the year Vicki Oliver first took care of the much-loved animals into her home