Hi 3Huts
If you are going to get a hog box for feeding, I would get one where the hog has to turn immediately right or left from the entrance rather than it can enter straight into a corridor and then turn. Then if you put a row of bricks along the internal corridor, cats find it harder to turn if they have had to flatten to get through a shallower height.
You can then also put an obstacle at the side of the entrance so that the hog can’t get the angle to easily get in. It’s sometimes a matter of trial and error to get it just right so that the cats can’t get in but the hogs can, but a persistent cat can get into those boxes unless you adapt them slightly, even when the doors are made smaller. Hogs can easily climb over the bricks and having a shorter body length and able to adapt their shape quite well, they can fit through smaller spaces than cats.
You could also try a sheet of perspex balanced on earth filled flower pots and weighed down on top – preferably against a wall or another obstacle. Some cats will still try to crawl on their bellies to get to the food, but aren’t so keen if they have to crawl through shallow water trays and get their bellies’ wet! Occasionally there is a hog who doesn’t like eating in boxes, but they normally seem to find the slightly more open perspex sheet ok. The hogs are quite happy to go through the shallow water to get to the food.
Good luck. I hope you find something that works.
