Baby feeding

We’ve started the baby feedings around april- may. We first got Baby Hedgehogs, 3and we had to feed them with goat milk because they were really small with only a few days. They said that it is really complicated to keep them alive at this stage because they are really fragile. We had to see that they peed and pooped correctly and we had to make sure that the milk and their bodies were warm enough at every feeding. It usually took us around 40 minutes to give few ml for each one and we had to give food every two hours ,the last feeding we gave was around 10pm but because they are so cute it was alright ???? but sadly the 3  didn’t survive after the 1st died the others followed, it was hard…

Few days after we got 6 others, even smaller ones, one didn't survive the transportation, maybe because of the cold, the day after another one didn’t survive but we kept really dedicated to the left ones, we saw  them grow really fast. Maria offered her childhood teddy bear to have a motherly presence in their box. Whenever they have their eyes open the critical point of losing them gets smaller, so we continue feeding  them till they have teeth. At first they were pink, a little translucent with small white spikes when they arrived and we saw them change quickly, to get less translucent with some hair coming and the spikes started to get pointy. We are today proud to see them, almost all adults now, living outside in a big cage, hoping they're gonna be released soon !!

It’s hard whenever some are dying but it feels so amazing to know that you are playing a big role in some lives. During that time we also started to have baby Magpies, Crows and Doves. Froso explained to us how to feed them and to be careful with them. After that we also had a lot of owls like “long eared owl” “little owl” also known as athena owl and tawny owls. I must say that I was so happy caring for those babies, they  were so cute. At the beginning it was awesome when we had around 5-10 babies, but we realize soon enough that it can be quite overwhelming when there are around 30-40 or more can’t remember exactly.  Because we had to feed them around 2 to 3 times per day so it demands some patience and perseverance. But still I’m really happy to have had this experience at Drasi !

LAETITIA EHRISMANN