Hi Nic,
Thank you for increasing my hog knowledge although on this basis I don’t think I would have impressed the lady hog as I watched them for around 25 minutes or so before I made ready for bed (it was past midnight by then I hasten to add) and when I came out of the bathroom the male hog had moved on whilst the female was now tucking in to its supper as provided by yours truly – I certainly didn’t persevere!
I saw the courtship from the start although it didn’t start too well as the male bashed the female a couple of times, causing her to roll up in to a ball, before he realised his mistake and started sniffing her (hopefully first impresssions don’t count in the hog world!) and then circling her.
She then unrolled and he continued to circle and sniff her whilst she jumped/jolted and huffed and so it continued in the same vane until my bedtime. As you say maybe better luck next time.
Can I now please pick your brain Nic.
My hog house has been in use on and off by a couple of different hogs in the past month or so. I put out a pile of leaves and a pile of straw as nesting material a week ago which have been left untouched until this morning.
I put this out to hopefully encourage a female hog to choose it as a breeding house. The hog has dragged a lot of the straw and leaves in to the house which is now sticking almost out of the opening.
I’m not getting any hopes up but do you think this is a sign that the occupant, which has just popped out for its evening scratch (it sits outside the hog house and has a good scratch as part of its waking up routine), meal and walkabout, is a female and that she may have prepared a nest/bedding to have hoglets in my hog house?
