We are always interested to hear how our customers use our products and were delighted to see the amazing set-up at Hamworthy Hedgehog Rescue and to find out how they use our TLC Intensive Care Units with the optional Humidity Pumps.
‘Based at our home in Poole, Dorset, Hamworthy Hedgehog Rescue are a small rescue, taking in around 700 hedgehogs per year. Like most other rescues our aim is to rescue, rehabilitate and release hedgehogs back to the wild. We take pride in the level of care we can provide hedgehogs that come into our centre. To assist with this, we have ten Brinsea TLC ICU’s two TLC-50’s, four TLC-40’s and four of the portable TLC-30’s. It would be safe to say that they have been in almost constant use, with orphan litters of hoglets, seriously ill, and injured hogs, where keeping them warm at all times is vitally important, and we still never seem to have enough of them. They are excellent at warming up hypothermic hedgehogs as they provide all round heat, with little or no cold spots due to the heater fan moving the warm air around the ICU.’
Hamworthy Hedgehog Rescue
‘Our volunteers love the ICU’s as they are easy to clean, despite the best efforts of mucky hedgehogs! The occupant(s) are placed into a holding box while the ICU is cleaned – usually a simple spray with a hog safe disinfectant cleaner is enough, though in the worst cases a plastic scraper has to be used as baked on hedgehog poo is hard to remove! Our ICU shed gets quite warm, and we found that the humidity trays constantly required topping up. We decided to add the Brinsea Humidity Pumps to the six larger ICU’s, as this enabled us to control the humidity in them much better than relying upon the internal water tray. The pumps simply plug in to the control panel on the front of the ICU’s, and humidity level is set in a similar fashion to setting the temperature. They do not require an additional power supply as they take their power from the ICU, which keeps things quite simple.
The pump reservoir holds 1 litre of water, to which we add some of Brinsea’s Incubation Disinfectant to prevent any mould forming on the evaporating blocks. Topping up is simply a case of lifting the top of the pump unit from the reservoir and filling up with a jug of fresh fluid. They are simple to clean which is good as we have very hard water here, and do not require much more than a wipe with soapy water and a good rinse. Other than topping up, it is a simple case of setting them up and forgetting about them, and no annoying alarms due to humidity being off – one less thing to worry about. The ease of setting up, cleaning and operational use of the ICU’s and humidity pumps has been a godsend, and we would recommend them to other wildlife rescues without hesitation.’
Jim Dunne
Hamworthy Hedgehog Rescue, Poole, Dorset.
Brinsea all the way. Not just because it's cracking equipment that's safe. But it's a uk business too. And you've gotta spend money in the uk if you can. Well done to you guys for being market...
