Cleaning Hog Houses

[YonderDave]

In the past I have found that houses used as summer nests can get in bit of a mess when I have cleaned them out in the autumn and have seen that hogs in care need their cages cleaned each day. I have never had hogs hibernate in our houses before.

Two of last years autumn juveniles have been in houses over winter and are still in residence (on advice we didn’t take them to care and they continued to feed until January and then had a short hibernation until Feb).

As hogs are easily disturbed and can take umbrage should I leave the houses or clean them out and provide new bedding? If so when is the best time to do it?

[Nic]

Hi YonderDave

It used to say somewhere under hedgehog homes, but I can’t find it, so maybe it isn’t there any more, but I seem to remember that it said Spring and Autumn. But it’s best not to disturb them if someone is actually in the box. It’s a bit tricky if they are still in regular use. In the wild they would probably move to another nest if they found the one they were in became too infested, etc. So you would think they would move out at some stage. They shouldn’t get as bad as the ones in care, because those would be pooing all over the place and probably spilling food and water everywhere! Have you got any spare houses, they might move into, so could clean the old ones out?

If you find they are out during the day, I would be inclined to clean them out now. I know last year I kept getting a lot of ticks in one of the boxes and they were only using it for naps between snacks.

[YonderDave]

Thanks Nic. Good point about the hogs in care, they don’t have a choice!

Spring and Autumn makes sense, to avoid breeding and hibernation. No spare houses I’m afraid, just the 2 I made hurriedly last year to cater for a couple of the Autumn juveniles we had. I think it was on Wildlife Online I read studies have shown that hogs naturally move fairly regularly and because of the numbers visiting there must be plenty of places nearby to nest.

I noticed one hog with a tick last week, so perhaps now is a good time for a Spring clean. A job for the weekend I think.

[Author]

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