Orphaned Badger Cubs
Tom, Dick and Harriet
These 3 tiny cubs, about 1 week old were found on 5th March 2009 in Wickford, Essex. Someone was excavating a garden
and dug them up. No sign of the mother anywhere. They were brought into the wildlife hospital and one of our experienced
volunteers is hand rearing them
It has taken 24 hours to stabilize them and get them to start to drink from a bottle. It is a full time job hand feeding 3 hungry little orphan badger cubs. They need feeding every 2 hours or so at this age.
There are 2 boars ( male) and 1 sow (female). All 3 are now bottle feeding and we will keep up to date with their progress
On arrival both boars weighed approx 320g and the sow nearly 500g.
As soon as they are eating solid food on their own, they will go back into the hospital to start the long, difficult and traumatic rehabilitation period. We have to avoid human contact as much as possible to give them any chance for survival in the wild
First photos from 6th March 2009
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On Monday the 9th March on her last feed on the day Harriet opened her left eye indicating she is around 5 weeks old and actually much older than Tom and Dick who are much less advanced than her. This indicates that she is not the pig of the
litter but that they are not siblings after all and that 2 sows were probably sharing the same breeding chamber…..only time will
indicate how old Tom and Dick actually are……..weight wise they are around the weight of a 2 week old cub…….harriets weight
indicates shes around 3-4 weeks but they open their eyes at 5 weeks………..quite confusing as things dont add up.
The following morning Harriets right eye opened.
When they came in last thursday Dick’s tail was bruised and a little ‘bumpy’ his tail then went red and cracked so his tail is being
treated with some sudo-cream and should hopefully clear up soon.
They are now beginning to have their own separate personalties……Dick being the trouble maker of the group closely
followed by Tom!) who will awake first and wake the other two, sucking their ears, tails and feet………Harriet however is very
laid back and loves her sleep!
They seem to be putting weight on at a good rate….on Tuesday 10th March Tom weighed in at 406gms, Dick 379gms and Harriet 572gms.
