The fattest hedgehog ever found by local volunteers has been placed on a strict diet and exercise regime.
Weighing in at 2.2kg, almost double the size of a normal, healthy hedgehog, the animal was handed in to rescue volunteers last month.
Named Garfield after the lazy tabby cat cartoon character, she was found in Pietà, unable to walk and with bleeding hind legs.
Angelique Lofaro, of the NGO Wildlife Rescue Team, said: “Garfield is an extremely rare case, we have never seen anything like her before.”
Lofaro said it was the biggest hedgehog they had ever rescued and just 100 grams lighter than Arbuckle, a hedgehog that was found in Scotland in 2018 and was at the time considered the world’s heaviest.
The average weight of a healthy North African adult hedgehog, the species found in Malta, is about 800g.
“When I first got her, she couldn’t even walk, she was so large,” Lofaro told Times of Malta.
A photo of Garfield when she was rescued.“Her hind legs couldn’t hold her weight, so she would drag herself, and her back legs would be dragged underneath her body, which ended up being bruised and bleeding. Her injuries were also infected when we found her.”
Over the past few weeks, Lofaro has taken care of Garfield’s rehabilitation programme, and through proper feeding and hydrotherapy exercises, she has already lost 400g and now weighs under 1.74kg.
When she was first rescued, Garfield’s condition indicated that she was kept as a pet and she became obese due to overfeeding and little exercise.
It is illegal in Malta to keep hedgehogs, and any other wild animals, as pets.
Her sleeping pattern also indicated that she had been kept as a pet.
“Hedgehogs are nocturnal, but with Garfield, she would be wide awake during the day,” she said.
In the beginning, she would keep Garfield in her crate in the dark, in the hopes she would get bored and fall asleep.
When I first got her, she couldn’t even walk, she was so large
“Now she sleeps during the day like the others and is awake with the other hedgehogs during the night, where I let them run around in my internal courtyard.”
Garfield also had unusually long claws – an issue that doesn’t affect hedgehogs in the wild, who are constantly on the move, scratching and climbing.
Rehabilitating Garfield hasn’t been easy for Lofaro, who is one of the NGO’s 20 volunteers for over six years and is currently taking care of 14 hedgehogs, including one mother and her three hoglets.
“She hates being picked up and she hates hydrotherapy, but it helps her. She hisses at me when we do these things, but I am happy she dislikes them. At the end of the day, she is a wild animal and is not meant to be kept captivated or looked after by humans.”
It is difficult to estimate how long it will be until Garfield can be released to the wild.
Garfield (right) is seen next to another hedgehog of average weight.“Every hedgehog is different, but we need to make sure that they are able to fend for themselves before we put them back in the wild.”
Lofaro says many of the team’s calls for help are linked to the prickly creatures.
Last year, the NGO received 765 calls for rescues, 481 of which were for hedgehogs. Up until the end of August, there have been 476 calls, with the majority, 338, just for hedgehogs.
“If you see a hedgehog out during the day, lying on their side, or with flies on them, that is a clear sign the hedgehog needs help. Otherwise, if they are out at night and look fine, just best to leave them alone.”