Hungry hedgehog put on a diet after becoming too fat to roll into a ball 

A hungry hedgehog has been put on a diet after becoming so fat he was unable to roll into a ball.

Tipping the scales: Roly Poly is too fat to curl into a ball

The greedy mammal, nicknamed Roly Poly, piled on the pounds after he was found dangerously underweight in a garage by a couple last October. 

Realising he was too skinny to survive hibernation they decided to fatten up, but he gorged on cat food and ballooned to 2kg, well above the average 600g. 

The worried couple took him to the Secret World Wildlife Rescue Centre, near Highbridge, Somerset, where he was placed on a strict diet. 

Roly Poly is now slowly losing weight on 150g of cat food and biscuits per day. 

'Overfeeding hedgehogs is an easy thing to do, as they're very greedy and love to scoff,' said staff member Debbie O’Keefe. 

Secret World founder Pauline Kidner added: 'We've had to house him in an otter box because a normal hedgehog one is far too small. 

'His intake of cat food and cat biscuits has been reduced to 150g per day so he's gradually losing weight.'