Hi Hedgie Lover
Glad to hear that sweetpea can come home soon. Other people might have different ideas, but when I have released hogs back into the garden, they have come home in cardboard boxes with torn up strips of newspaper, which they’ve stayed in (usually in the garden) until it’s nearly time i.e. dark and then I make a hog hole in the box and just leave it there for the hog to come out when it chooses. Sometimes I have sat for hours waiting for the hogs to come out. But they have not eaten the food which I left nearby outside their cardboard boxes, but scarpered off somewhere. They usually return the next night.
The exception was the poor hog who was strimmed and she came home in that very hot weather in the Summer, so she stayed in the kitchen where it was a bit cooler until dark. Then I scooped her and the bedding up and put her and bedding in the hog box which was immediately next to where I caught her. (Easily visible from the house). She curled up again and went back to sleep. After a few hours, she eventually came out and had a little exploration. She is a bit of an exception as she very likely can’t see well or possibly at all. But she explored all round and then disappeared. She seemed to remember it all, despite being away for months. Now she is back visiting every night. I left her bedding in the box for several days, but she didn’t show any sign of going back in there. None of those I’ve released (all of which came from here originally) have gone back into their release boxes, but I understand they sometimes do.
