Hedgehog families have become quite frequent visitors, this season, at WAF. This particular brood was actually born at the centre! ‘Mum’ was rescued by one of our volunteers after she was spotted in a garden struggling to walk. Once here, the vet team confirmed that she had a broken femur in one of her back legs. Under normal circumstances, Maru would perform an operation to pin the bones in to the correct position, to enable them to heal. However, we quickly discovered that the hog was heavily pregnant, which rendered the procedure an unviable option, as a general anaesthetic would endanger the lives of the unborn hoglets. Luckily for mum, the fragments of bone were not displaced, so we were able to move her in to one of our hutches, in the quietest area of the hospital. This would allow her to heal and give birth in peace, which is essential for the hoglets’ survival, since there is always a chance that mum will reject or, potentially, even eat her young hoglets, if the nest is disturbed whilst her babies are still very small. Thankfully, they have made it past this very cautious stage and, when the youngsters reach 6 weeks, they will all be released back in to the wild to start afresh as a brand new family! #Hegehogs #Family #growingup #spikey #prickles #rescue #pregnant #hoglets #young #mum #hogrun #cute https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz0dzhPADbE/?igshid=uitut5nmhfln