THE owner of a hedgehog rescue centre is warning people to avoid disturbing potential nest sites after the latest orphaned babies arrived this week (August 10) -- aged just two days old.

Janis Dean, pictured, who runs the Carleton Hedgehog Hospital, is caring for the two tiny spikey bundles, the youngest pair she has ever taken in.

The babies were found in the garden of a house in Knox Grove, Blackpool, after their mother abandoned them because the nest had been disturbed.

Now Janis is appealing to gardeners to be extra careful when digging into compost heaps and clearing out rubbish and bin bags.

"Hedgehogs make their nests in all sorts of places and once it is disturbed the mother abandons her babies or even eats them," she explained.

"The casualty list is increasing as more and more land is built on and hedgehogs are forced to encroach into urban areas." She said that although looking after the hedgehogs was a year-round job there were always more injuries in the summer months. "Hedgehogs are brought to me with lots of different injuries. They get their noses trapped in yoghurt pots, receive wounds from garden forks, get trapped in the plastic rings that hold beer cans together and fall into garden ponds but can't get out because the sides are too steep," she said.

The orphans are now being hand reared until they are big and strong enough to be released into the wild.

Janis has been running the hospital for five years and has outgrown her present accommodation, a garden shed. She is aiming to raise funds to construct purpose-built accomodation and is offering a "sponsor a hedgehog" scheme where people can pay £5 and choose their own hedgehog. They will then receive a certificate and a photograph, with a history of how it came to be in the hospital and an update of its progress.

IF anyone would like to sponsor a hedgehog, they can contact the hospital on (01253) 899404.