After arriving covered in fly strike on Saturday afternoon, and struggling for the first 24 hours tiny Poppet – the lighter coloured one on the right – is now snuggled up with little adopted sister Henny who arrived early yesterday evening.
They are both doing well and Poppet’s eyes have opened today. We expect Henny’s will open within the next day or two. Hoglets generally do better when they have another hoglets to snuggle with, and these girls are no exception. Their feeding patterns are polar opposites. Poppet is a slow methodical feeder. Henny gulps her formula down as if she is half starved, despite being fed every 4 hours since she arrived. Hopefully she will slow down a bit once she knows food is readily available. Her belly was completely empty when she arrived, so she may have been without her mother for quite some time, hence her haste to feed.
Our hand reared litter of five who are in the process of being weaned have now been divided into two groups. The three larger ones in one incubator and the two smaller ones in another to allow the smaller ones to get more access to the food before their ever hungry siblings eat it all! Their birth weights were between 22g and 34g. Now the 22g little girl is now 68g and her siblings weights are between 117g and 147g, so she is still substantially smaller but full of life and is always keen when fresh food and formula is provided.
Once fully weaned all these hoglets will go to the main rescue at the barn to be fattened up ready for release back to the wild.
