Hi Aggie
If I were you, I would leave the hogilo for the hog to nest in, as it clearly likes it in there, and use the new box as a feeding box. I think you were right, when you mentioned above that the hogilos are really designed, if not only for hibernation, at least for nesting. It might become a problem if you don’t have much room to move it around, using it in the way Kipppy Ben does. But you might also find that the hogilo doesn’t last very long. They aren’t designed to last as long as a box does.
Another problem with using a hogilo for feeding, is that they have all sorts of nooks and crannies for parasites or their eggs to hide. Ideally with a wooden feed box/container, where you might have more than one hog coming and going, you would want to clean it out with boiling water from time to time to get rid of parasites and/or their eggs, etc. Hogilos don’t really lend themselves to that. Plastic storage boxes, don’t have the same corners, and places for parasites to hide, so are easier to clean, even though you can’t use boiling water on them.
Until you get a box, or as an alternative, you could use the sheet balanced on pots arrangement, which I mentioned above. Most people have flower pots around and you might have something which you could use as a roof. I would put this on some sort of paving, so that it’s easily cleaned. The hogs won’t mind what it looks like.
I know you mentioned it’s been raining a lot there, but hogs normally like to take their own nesting material in themselves to build their nests, so if you leave a supply of suitable material (leaves, long grasses, etc.) nearby to the hogilo, under some bushes, or the like, they can select what they would like to take in. Some hogs apparently even take nesting material out of hog houses if they don’t approve of it! But the hog might like to add to what you have already put in the hogilo. They use an enormous amount of material for a hibernation nest. Apparently in the wild they can measure about 50cm in diameter!
Good luck with the hog. I hope it decides to hibernate in your garden.
