Tubby Ted the blind hedgehog put on a diet

A blind and hefty hedgehog who reached almost 2kg has captured the hearts of thousands on social media after he had to be put on a diet by his rescuer.

Teddy the hedgehog found himself in care after his eyes were believed to have been pecked out by chickens and after developing a worm infection.

Bryony Farmer, 57, from Lower Hacheston near Wickham Market in Suffolk, was asked by a rescue centre if she could help.

More than 540,000 have since watched her videos of Teddy, documenting her attempts to bring his weight down to 1kg-1.2kg (0.16-0.19 stone)

Farmer, a former model, has been rescuing hedgehogs for six years and was asked to take Teddy so he could get some exercise in her garden where she has a safe enclosure.

She said Teddy was found in a "very bad state" and at his heaviest, weighed 1.777kg (0.28 stone)

"Because he's so old, his metabolic rate wasn't great and he wasn't getting the full exercise that he was used to because he was so poorly," Farmer explained.

"Obviously he liked to eat food, so he was laying on the grams... but the whole point about hedgehogs is that they need to be able to curl up in a ball to protect themselves.

"He nearly can now which is wonderful whereas he couldn't a few weeks ago."

Farmer has slowly been restricting his food, which is similar to cat food.

On her Instagram account, thousands of people have been following Teddy's journey, reasons for which Farmer said she was unsure of.

"It's mad because I've been posting for ages with really sweet clips of these tiny little hogs... I get probably like 80 likes for something and [Teddy's posts] have gone totally mad," she continued.

"I've actually lost track of the figures at the moment."

Farmer planned to keep Teddy so he could enjoy his senior years in a safe environment.

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