To find a wildlife hospital in the meantime, please contact us on 01522 688300 or, for a hedgehog hospital, please ring us or the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890801.  For advice only, you can also  ring the Diss Hedgehog Advisory Centre on 01379 644988.

ESBILAC

We have recently had some comments from rehabilitators that they have been having some problems with Esbilac powder, in particular that it separates out very quickly after mixing and that colour and consistency had changed.  We contacted PetAg, the makers of Esbilac, and asked for their comments on this. 

While not directly answering some of our questions, PetAg confirmed that Esbilac ingredients and nutritional composition are the same as they have been for years but that they have changed the manufacturing process by returning to a single-step drying process in the spring of this year.  This method involves less processing of ingredients during manufacture and results in a product that, when reconstituted, provides a higher level of nutrients with an estimated increase in digestibility of the protein and fat of 1-3%.  This may mean that you need to adjust the water:product ratio to suit different species.

PetAg tell us that this ‘new’ Esbilac weighs less and is no longer an ‘instant mix’.  It needs to be mixed with very hot water and they recommend stirring for a full minute.  Also, it seems to settle more in the can and it is recommended that the tin is turned over several times to assist with accuracy in measuring.

We tried mixing a sample with water boiled then left for about a minute and stirred well for a minute and it did seem to solve the separation problem; the colour and consistency also seemed good.  One rehabilitator had mentioned that a skin seemed to form on the surface – with this method, we did get some oil/fat globules forming on the top but this was minimal.

We realized that this does not concur with the mixing instructions on the tin and we will be contacting PetAg again to ask them about this.

If you have any further queries, or comments, please email wayne@spikesite.co.uk .