Definiatly 2 in the garden
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We had 3 hogs last year.
2 for definiate this year one being a very noisy snorty hog. Seriously you can hear him snoring.
Managed to clean 2 of the boxes out unfortunately disturbing one who scuttled under the log pile made last year bless it 😍. Snortys box can be cleaned tonight when he goes wandering. Fresh bedding and plenty of dried leaves hopefully some hoglets this yearJust started three days ago leaving food out, and every night it was gone, now tonight we are lucky enough as I write, to have two courting on the lawn! So excited! Unless it’s two males seeing each other off!
HI Georgie120
Good to hear you have hogs around again. Keep an eye (or an ear!) out for Snorty, that his breathing doesn’t get too bad.
It’s probably too late now, but it’s best not to clean out a hog house, whilst a hog is still using it – i.e. whilst it’s out during the night. Some hogs will just turn up their noses and leave completely. Also hog houses should never be disturbed if there is any chance at all that there might be young ones in there. The Mother might desert them, or worse. Hopefully none of that applies to Snorty.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
Hi Annecoles
Good to hear you have hogs there. You will be able to tell if they are males or females. With courting hedgehogs the male circles the female, whilst she – in the centre of the circle – turns round and round, huffing as she goes. This can go on for hours, but often doesn’t lead to mating. Male and females don’t pair up, as such, and one litter of hogs can apparently have more than one father.
Fingers crossed you have males and females around and that there will be a patter of little hoglet feet later on.
Good luck.
Hi, to my surprise, last night around 9.30pm, happened to look out our back door. There was our resident hog, munching the food I put out for it. Suddenly, up the path comes another even larger hog. It joined “ours” at the bowl of food and proceeded to munch as well. “Ours” started making huffing sounds at it but they both carried on munching. I thought there was more than one and now have confirmation. Only one resident mind you the other is obviously a regular visitor. We are delighted to see it. Both are adult hogs but not sure what sex they are. Are males larger or smaller than females? Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in size please?
Elsie.Hi Elsie
Good to hear you have had two hogs there!
Size isn’t a reliable way to tell male from female. Some mature females can be larger than some males. Although I have found the largest males tend to be larger than the largest females. But, as with humans, there is a bit of variation in size. Some hogs just don’t ever seem to get very big.
Having said that, my guess is that your resident hog is a female and the large one a male, from the behaviour you describe. I don’t normally take one incident as a reliable indicator, but females are the ones who normally make the huffing sound, and often move their little feet up and down in time – sometimes looking like a little jig – and usually reverse – usually when a male is around. However, if the male doesn’t show any interest, she may give up. Occasionally they start the jigging/huffing, initially, when a female arrives, but usually give up fairly quickly, once they realise. So it’s possible the large one could be a female. You’ll need to keep a look out and see if the behaviour continues or if he starts to circle round her – which is the start of male ‘courtship’ behaviour.
I have found that sometimes the large more mature males don’t always show too much interest in the very small females. (Maybe they know there is another more mature female near by and don’t want to waste their energy ‘courting’ a youngster – don’t know). But also if he is hungry, eating may take priority to ‘courting’. In my experience, certain males are always seem more interested in food!
Hi Nic,
well, last night, opened my back door and heard a very loud huffing sound from down my garden path. Crept out with a torch and there they were, the larger one behind the slightly smaller one and one of them making that very loud sound. That is the first time I have experienced this so was fascinated. I didn’t hang around though as I think I disturbed them, they stopped what they were doing. I left them to it then but felt great to have witnessed that for the first time. I am waiting to see what will happen if they were courting. Am intrigued to see if little hoglets will appear in a few weeks time.
I will keep you posted.
Elsie.Hi ElsieD
Sounds promising and that they are male and female. Yes, best not to disturb them at all. They can be very sensitive. These lengthy circlings, don’t always come to anything even if not disturbed. Sometimes one or other of them will decide to give up and just run off. Also females, it seems, are quite happy to ‘circle’ with more than one male (at different times). Apparently some litters have been found to have more than one Father. But definitely good that there are male and female around and fingers crossed for some hoglets later on.
The best way to watch them is if you have an outside light, to leave it on for a certain amount of time each night. The hogs soon get used to this. Or you could use solar lights. It is usually the type of light which goes on and off that they don’t like – and of course a torch would fit into that category. Ideally watch them from inside – possibly with binoculars – so that you don’t disturb them.
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