Orphaned seal pup rescued from garage and rehabilitated at Sussex animal rescue

Pappardelle, a grey seal pup, was found alone in a garage, a mile inshore of St Catherine’s Bay in Jersey.

At only a few days old, the pup was flown to RSPCA Mallydams Wood, in Hastings, for rehabilitation, where he has been suckling on fish soup from a substitute ‘mother’ made of waterproof trousers, towels and artificial teats.

This unique way of feeding was thought up by Mallydams colleague Penny Taberer to avoid having to tube-feed the pup, which can be quite stressful.

RSPCA Mallydams wildlife assistant Ash Peters said: “[Pappardelle] was quite weak and wobbly when he was admitted to Mallydams and that’s probably because he hadn’t eaten much.

"He was examined thoroughly and happily we found nothing of concern.

"He’s noisy, stroppy and grumpy, just as a grey seal pup should be!”

Weighing an encouraging 15kg, he was already quite plump and keen to feed.

This season, Mallydams’ theme for naming grey seal pups is pasta. The wildlife centre named this little seal Pappardelle, which means ‘to gobble up’.

Ash added: “Pappardelle will be with us for a while - at least three or four months. He’s still very young and hasn’t even lost his white fur yet, normally moulted at around three weeks old.

"He’ll need to be weaned onto fish and to reach around 35 to 40kg in weight before he can be returned to the wild.

"We plan to release him with some of the other grey seal pups we’re looking after here.

“We’d like to thank the BDMLR and their medics, who carried out the rescue and arranged the transportation. We’d also like to thank the aircraft pilot and staff who helped with the transfer of Pappardelle to Mallydams”.

It costs RSPCA Mallydams about £60 a day in fish alone to look after the seals in its care, so all financial donations are welcomed by the charity.

For more information on what to do if you see a wild animal in distress, visit the RSPCA’s website.