Well, this hedgehog was a rather large one...It was in the end of the summer, time of hedgehog's
active search for food. He came to our feeding place, but was scratching himself
like crazy. It was obvious that he has a problem! How to capture him? Even though he was rather big
he could still run quickly, besides I did not wanted to scare him too much. I placed out some
very nicely smelling cat food. Waiting was not long, he came quickly and in no time at all
gulped all the content of a small tin. Now I moved quickly and lifted him from the ground.
You can not imagine how many red flees he had between his spines. My husband prepared finger
warm bath and we carefully poured the water (no detergents or such in it) on a calm
hedgehog. We tried to do it slowly and not to wet his ears.
We had to change the water four times, since it was deep black after every "bath". The flees
were fleeing in panic and jumping around, I was lucky that they did not actually jump on me,
what they could do as well.
After bathing the slightly cleaner hedgehog was released. He shook off the rest of the water
and calmly moved on.
Important note: always wear the gloves when handling a hedgehog for a first time!!!