A formerly fat hedgehog has lost weight but “still gets stuck upside down sometimes”, his carers have revealed.
Arbuckle the hedgehog, a resident at New Arc animal sanctuary in Ellon, used to be the size of a World Cup football.
Weighing in at 2.335kg, he could barely walk and was unable to protect himself by rolling into a ball when he was donated to the sanctuary in June.
Now, after a strict diet and exercise regime, Arbuckle is in much better health – even if he does still find himself in trouble from time to time.
Pauline Marley, a staff member at New Arc, said she was pleased with his progress.
She said: “Arbuckle is finding walking much easier now, although he does get stuck upside down on occasions.
“His weigh-in on Monday showed he is now down to 1.995kg, which is still very overweight but he is doing brilliantly.
“A typical diet for an overwintering hedgehog to put on weight is chicken cat food and for very small hoglets, a puppy milk replacement.
“Arbuckle doesn’t actually like tinned cat food, though he does like cat biscuits, so we have him on a diet cat food which fills him up but has a low calorific value.
“We scatter the biscuits around his run so he has to actually move to find them, rather than offer them in a bowl.
“He gets outside, supervised, to snuffle around and eat a few bugs. The exercise outside is good for him.”
New Arc animal sanctuary will not be releasing Arbuckle into the wild this year, as he still cannot roll up into a ball properly and wouldn’t be able to keep himself warm.
In fact, the sanctuary assumes it will be seeing more snuffling snouts appearing at its doors this winter.
Ms Marley said: “For a hedgehog to be able to survive the winter in the North East of Scotland and hibernate safely, it needs to weight around 650g.
“Any smaller than that by the end of September and they really need to be overwintered indoors.
“We expect over the next month or so we will be taking in any amount of youngsters who are not big enough to go into hibernation safely.”
Any well-meaning individuals who take in hedgehogs this winter have been encouraged to contact New Arc for advice first.
