On Friday 13th an animal lover found an adult hedgehog injured and bleeding in the middle of the road at Marsascala in the south of Malta. He picked it up and brought it to International Animal Rescue’s wildlife centre but sadly the poor creature had to be put to sleep. An hour or so later a British resident who lives in Malta phoned up and asked whether she could bring in three baby hedgehogs that she had found.
The hedgehogs arrived later that afternoon and it was established that they came from exactly the same spot where the injured mother had been found. They had been running all over the road and were in danger of being hit by a car. It’s possible they came out of their winter hiding place in search of their mother: this is very common when adults are injured and have dependent young.
During the cold weather these hedgehogs would have remained hidden in the rubble walls and other similar places. But when the sun shone brightly and the weather warmed up they clearly came out in search of food. It is not uncommon for hedgehogs to come out during the day.
The little hedgehogs weighed between 100 and 120 grammes when they reached us but are progressing well and have increased considerably in weight. Every day they enjoy a plate of dog food and also a number of snails which are normally their main staple food. They eat about 12 snails and 50 grammes of dog food a day between them.
We should be able to release them in the coming month when the weather is fine and they each weigh about 200/250 grammes.
If they hadn’t been rescued these delightful creatures would eventually have died from a lack of sufficient carbohydrates to survive the cold weather