Teacher hand-feeds four orphaned hedgehogs every three hours to nurse them back to health after they were rescued during lockdown
- Annie Parfitt, 52, has been feeding the hedgehogs ever since they were rescued
- She cares for them in her shed at her home in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire
- Two of the hedgehogs were just 35g and the others were covered in fly eggs and maggots
- One went into a coma for three days after maggots starting eating their eyes
Adorable photos show four orphaned hoglets being hand-reared back to health by being hand-fed every three hours.
Kind-hearted Annie Parfitt, 52, has been feeding the hedgehogs ever since they were rescued during lockdown.
Annie, who is a teacher, has loved hedgehogs ever since she was a little girl and now she cares for them inside her shed at home in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire.
Nicknamed the 'Hedgehog Whisperer', Annie has been nursing the hoglets for nearly two months.
When they were brought to an animal hospital at the start of June, two of them were just 35g and the two larger ones were covered in fly eggs and maggots.
One of them went into a coma for three days after maggots started eating their eyes.
The two smaller hoglets are females and were found in a nest alongside three dead siblings. The two larger ones were still only 85g.
Teacher Annie Parfitt, 52, from Brimscombe, Gloucestershire, founded the Help A Hedgehog sanctuary 12 years ago
Their intensive treatment has seen them make a remarkable recovery. The smaller hedgehogs have now weighed in at 95g and 98g.
Annie said: 'Hedgehogs are nocturnal so they should never really be outside in the day but the two bigger ones were after their mother had unfortunately been killed by a car.'
She added that the smaller hoglets were so dehydrated when they first arrived that they had to have fluid injected directly into their spines before they started being hand-fed every three hours.
Annie added: 'They are still being fed by hand every three hours at the moment. They are beginning to lap but not enough to gain weight so I'm topping them up very gently.
'The bigger ones are now 160g and 164g and are now lapping up on their own - a special puppy milk formula mixed with a meat formula.'
She has been hand-feeding the hedgehogs every three hours since they were rescued
Annie founded the Help A Hedgehog sanctuary 12 years ago just after her 40th birthday after hearing that hedgehogs had been added to the list of endangered species.
With no other hedgehog sanctuaries existing in Gloucestershire at the time, Annie started caring for the animals in her very own shed with her students picking the name for the new charity.
There are now three Help A Hedgehog hospitals across the country and Annie is now raising money to build a new hospital in her back garden so she can help even more animals.
The new hospital will replace the current shed and will have a water heater, running water, a double sink, work tops which can be cleaned easily, a lino floor and a fridge.
Two hedgehogs drink from an orange tray as Annie watches them and holds them steadily
Share this article
She needs £12,000 for the new hospital and hopes to raise £7,000.
Since Annie started fundraising last weekend, she has already raised an incredible £2,800 and rising quickly.
Annie said: 'Ever since I was a little girl, I've had a great affinity for hedgehogs, I was always picking them up in our garden. I don't know where my love for them came from.
'People call me the 'Hedgehog Whisperer' because the animals just open up to me.
'When hedgehogs are scared, they curl up into a tiny tight ball and won't unfurl until they're no longer scared.
Their intensive treatment has seen the hedgehogs make a remarkable recovery
Annie still works full time and people always ask her how she keeps up with it all. She says she's never tired because she loves looking after the hedgehogs
'But as soon as I pick them up, they open up to me like they can sense that I am there to help.'
Everyone at the charity volunteers and they have regular donations and food donation bins in local supermarkets as well as doing their own fundraising.
Last winter they had 140 hedgehogs and 50 of those were in Annie's shed. Since Annie started the charity 12 years ago, they are accepting more and more every year.
Annie said: 'Looking after the hedgehogs in lockdown had made us realise just how primitive our current setting is for looking after them so we are fundraising for money to build a new state of the art one.
Annie said people call her the 'Hedgehog Whisperer' and when she picks up hedgehogs they unfurl from their tight ball like they can sense she is going to help
Last winter they had 140 hedgehogs and 50 of those were in Annie's shed. They are accepting more and more hedgehogs every year
'It will be brilliant, I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself!'
'I won't be washing up outside with a kettle and filling a water butt with a hose any more if we can build it!
'I'm still working full time and people always ask me how I keep with it all but I'm honestly never tired because I just love looking after them.
'The hedgehogs give back to me just as much as I give to them, it's so rewarding.'
You can donate to Help A Hedgehog here.
She is fundraising to build a new hospital for the hedgehogs in her garden so that she doesn't have to wash up outside with a kettle and filling a water butt with a hose
Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Buckinghamshire have rescued more than 100 hedgehogs in June.
One little girl hedgehog was found in someone's garden in Hazlemere, High Wycombe, on June 4, after she was orphaned.
She arrived at Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital weighing 110g but she is now steadily putting on weight.
She is in the hospital nursery being cared for by the mammal feeders where she will remain until she is old enough to move to an outdoor enclosure.
One little girl hedgehog was found in someone's garden in Hazlemere, High Wycombe. She is being cared for at Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Buckinghamshire
