Hi Rachel
Don’t worry too much – sometimes hogs do decide to temporarily take up residence in a food box and it can’t be helped if you inadvertently disturb them. Normally in those cases they don’t seem to mind to much, I find. Hogs will sometimes spend the day in a food box, but I’ve found they normally only stay for a day or two – almost as if they had had a night on the tiles, got caught out by daylight so decided to bed down where they were!
But if you want Sonic to take up residence longer term in a house, you really need a separate hog house to the feeding box. If Sonic is a female it’s best not to have the food too close to where she might make a birthing nest. If Sonic is a male, they don’t always stay long term (other than hibernation), but move around to different places – in the Summer sometimes settling down in some undergrowth or the bottom of a hedge.
But if you want to encourage a hog to nest it’s best to put a small amount of bedding into the house (medium sized leaves, long grasses, etc.) but make sure there is more material nearby. Males may not use much bedding in the Summer. But some hogs won’t use a box until it ‘becomes part of the furniture’ – sometimes as long as a couple of years. So the fact that Sonic has gone into a box already might mean he would be likely to use another one.
You might need to get another hog house! But, it’s great that Sonic is returning regularly for food – knows he’s on to a good thing! You might already, but it’s a good idea to leave water available for hogs all day every day. You never know when a dehydrated hog might turn up needing a drink.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
