Poppy’s Creche is an entirely self-funded small charity which is run and managed by Ann and her valuable team of volunteers. Poppy’s Creche is named after a very special albino hedgehog, Poppy.  

Poppy’s Creche specialises in taking sick and orphaned babies and we work tirelessly to hand rear the youngsters. Young hoglets need feeding by hand every two hours and this can be exhausting.

Hoglets often come into us weak, dehydrated and very sick. They need specialist feeding at all times. They also need to be kept at a warm temperature. If you find a nest of hog lets you need to watch the nest to see if mum returns.

Often weaning mothers will go out during the day to forage and leave their babies for a while and you may hear the babies call out to her as she returns. If a mother does not return or the babies are making constant high pitched squealing sounds there is a problem.

If mum is injured or ill then both mum and babies need help.

Babies leave the nest with mum at about 100gms, at this time they wander around learning survival skills with their mother. As they grow they will take more trips out under her watchful eye alone. By the time they reach between 200 and 250 gms they will be starting to spend less time with mum and finding their own nearby nest.

When hoglets are first born they do not have any spines. These appear in the first few hours.