Hi Bushsnuffler
Yes, they do get stressed in captivity and not all that are taken in will survive – so it isn’t an easy option. But at this time of year I would be thinking more about making sure they got some of the food on offer and not even weighing them yet. I have a feeling that some hogs are ‘rescued’ much sooner than they need to be and could potentially have grown large enough to hibernate naturally if they’d been left (as long as supplementary food is being provided). The trouble is that then the rescue places get filled up with hoglets early and when the ones that really need rescuing come along later on, there’s no room at the Inn.
So I would just keep an eye out for the little one and hope that it starts tucking in to a bit of food. Some hogs decide not to hibernate, even if they are heavy enough, so I would keep leaving food out definitely for at least a week after all hogs have disappeared (if they do) and some people leave food out all winter even if all hogs seem to have disappeared. Hogs apparently do emerge during hibernation for short periods sometimes. Definitely leave water out all winter.
There may be quite a few hogs around who have been through the ‘rescue’ process at some time and they may behave a bit differently to a hog who has always been wild – especially if it was when they were young.
