Care Rehabilitation and Aid for Sick Hedgehogs

One of the happier occasions when the hedgehog hospital was given an entire truck load of pet food by "Felix"
The hedgehogs feasted for ages on

For one off donations, please send your cheque made payable to:

If you would like to make regular donations of anything from £2 upwards per month, please click on the appropriate icon below and print out the monthly donation instruction form. When you have entered your Bank details and the amount you wish to donate, don't forget to sign it, post the completed form to CRASH who will then arrange for your Bank to make the regular payments. If, at any time in the future, you wish to cancel your monthly donation, just write to your Bank requesting they stop the payment to CRASH.

By also completing the Deed of Covenant form, CRASH can claim an additional tax refund on your regular donations.

Thank you from all the hedgehogs

DO HEDGEHOGS
MAKE GOOD PETS?
DEFINITELY NOT.
They are a bit smelly, walk through their own food and water bowls, even messing in them as they go.
Their favourite trick is to stomp food into newspaper lining their box, tip over the water bowl, mix it all together adding a good helping of droppings, mash it all in, then tear up the resultant mess into strips and start making a nest! Apart from the mess they make, hedgehogs are nocturnal creatures and usually only appear at night when they think no one will be around. Another good reason for not keeping them as pets is because they are never happy in captivity and the stress it causes usually shortens their lives dramatically. When a hedgehog has to be kept in captivity for a while due to injuries etc. they have been known to give up hope and die for no other reason than their desperate need to be back in the wild.     

DO HEDGEHOGS HAVE GOOD EYESIGHT?
Not really, they can see things very close but probably not in great detail. A hedgehog normally relies on it's nose to find food. If you are lucky enough to see one searching for food, it will have its nose in the air or on the ground, sniffing everywhere it goes. Food can be detected even under an inch of soil and a human can be smelt many yards away. Ears are another matter, although small, they are very sensitive and play and important role in helping to detect their lunch. They can easily hear a beetle scurrying by or a bug rustling about underground.   

HOW LONG DO HEDGEHOGS LIVE?
With our help they can live as long as ten years in the wild. However, without help they usually only survive for two or three years.
The first few weeks of life are likely to be its last! About 20% of hoglets die before leaving the nest.  The next big hurdle is their first winter, around three quarters of hedgehogs never see their first birthday! The majority die during their first hibernation, a very dangerous time for them. The few that survive will see their chances of surviving a second and third winter greatly increased but with all the added hazards a hedgehog has to face from cars, falling into deep ponds, pesticides etc. its future is not too good. Probably, about four hedgehogs in a thousand might reach the age of ten but it will be very rare indeed for any hedgehog to live longer than that.