Hi pope pius ix
You don’t really need to do anything different for the hoglets than you do for the other hogs. Mother hog will take care of them when they are young. Once they start eating the food we offer, if you offer dry food, you might like to offer kitten biscuits, whilst they’re small, but any other food suitable for hogs should be o.k. for them. Other than that, make sure that any water containers aren’t too deep for them and that they can climb out of them and you probably are already careful about making sure there are no hog hazards in the garden – but bear in mind the smaller size.
The recommended weight is 450g to survive hibernation, but I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that. If they are out and about on their own already, they will have plenty of time to put on sufficient weight for hibernation, especially if you are supplementary feeding them. It’s very stressful for hogs to be kept in captivity and better for them if they can remain in the wild. Just checked and if these are the ones you were talking about in June they would be independant by now.
It’s seems unlikely that Mother hog will choose to hibernate under the barrow, but never say never. It’s more likely that the hoglets will still be out and about even after Mother has gone off to hibernate, but probably not in the nest they were born in. They or some of them may even move on to another area before hibernation.
The average family size is apparently 4 or 5, but there is quite a high mortality rate and apparently it’s more normal for a hog to manage to raise 2 or 3 young ones per season.
I would keep a careful eye on the wheelbarrow. They may already have moved on from there. Do you have a camera you could have aimed on the area to check? Alternatively you could try making a footprint tunnel. https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/footprint-tunnels/ I suspect that if a careful search is made, it will become obvious if they are still there, with fairly minimal disturbance.
Good luck. I hope they stay around – they are such endearing little things and good fun to watch.
