Hog Observations
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I had a hog using my (home built) hog house as a day nest until a hog fight took place on night of Thursday 26th April and the previous hog was usurped by another hog who took over occupation. He was in there the following night but it was empty on Saturday morning when I took a peek.
I have another (hogitat) hog house but this has never had an occupant unfortunately (I have seen hogs go in there but they don’t seem to take up residence – maybe I need to resite it when the time is right).
Anyway the new hog came back and was there on Sunday night and is still there tonight.
I put out the food as usual and it popped out and had some of it, but not all, then went on a garden patrol and then headed straight over to the other hog house and was in their for quite a while (although I’m sure its empty). It then evetually emerged and then went back to its house, stopping for a poo halfway between the two houses, and then had a good sniff around the entrance before going back in almost as though it was checking for squatters!
Its now come back out and has been doing a lot of air sniffing, which I have seen before, but I haven’t seen any other hogs yet.
None of the above is probably very exciting but I wish I knew what it was up too, what it is thinking and what it is sniffing!
I’m new to hog story posting good to have some one to offload too instead of my Facebook page lol We have three that have visited and one I am currently watching under the tree – he’s been back there 3 times in the last 15 minutes to demolish cat food. I’ve noticed he’s itching a lot more than yesterday. I managed to pick him yesterday to have a look if he was ok and he just seems to be thirsty – should I be worried or let him be if he’s eating and drinking ok? Thanks
Hi Miss Tiddlewinkles,
I’m no hog expert but if your hog is eating and drinking I would think they are fine but others may be able to advise on this better than me.
Good to see you are feeding them cat food (no mealworms please as I found out, quite a while back, that these aren’t good for hogs) and always make sure they have access to water especially when its warm – when we had our ‘summer’ last week the hogs were drinking a lot and I had to top up their water dish a couple of times during the evening although they do have a habit of flipping it up and spilling the contents sometimes over themselves! Also best not to handle them as they are wild animals and this may cause them stress.
As for the itching my hogs are often scratching with their surprisingly long legs which seem to reach everywhere! I have often seen them get a bit carried away with their scratching leading to some comical ‘roll overs’.
I take it your hog doesn’t have a tick infestation (little white blobs normally around the head/ears)? My hogs often have 1 or 2 ticks on them (which ironically helps me identify individuals) but this number isn’t much of an issue for healthy hogs but if they are a bit under the weather ticks can become more prevalent and if they have an infestation can make them anemic so they may need some help to remove them (I know others on the forum have done this using a tick hook but I have never tried it myself as I have yet to come across an individual needing attention and I know you have to be very carefull to not leave the mouth parts in the hog as this could lead to more problems).
Well I now have another hog in the garden who is running around like he is on some sort of mission stopping to have a good sniff every now and again ( as well as eating a few hog biscuits for good measure).
This has got me thinking maybe the hog house resident is a female and this chap is an amorous suitor trying to sniff her out hence the energetic activity or maybe he is just trying to keep warm on a cold April night!
Hi Hogmeister
It does sound to me like a male, as I call it, ‘on patrol’. Sometimes wonder where they get the energy from! The other night I was taking the bowls in when up dashed this hog, stopped at my feet and then continued on his way. Only to come back when I had crouched down to pick up the bowls and almost sniffed at my hand, before dashing off again.
The patrolling seems to serve a double purpose of looking out for any females to court or any males to biff! The sniffing, possibly likewise, but hogs do rely a lot on their sense of smell. Their eyesight isn’t that good at the best of times and it is dark. They look very endearing with their little snouts up in the air sniffing, don’t they?
Even if the resident hog isn’t female, if there are hogs around, it is likely there will be female visitors.
Hi Nic,
I find hogs endearing full stop.
Well the hog house was vacant tonight but the hog that has spent the last 2 nights in there turned up about 10pm tonight so he must have hung out somewhere else today. I know they don’t use any one day nest for long so not a big surprise but it will be interesting to see if he stays there again tonight.
Your term on patrol is a great as this is exactly what it looked like – a hog checking his environment for intruders, anything unusual or a lady friend!
Your story about the hog sniffing your hand reminds we when I also went out a couple of years ago, a bit later then normal, to put out food only to realise a hog was nearby. I didn’t want to frighten it so I stood stock still and it came right up to my feet, had a good sniff and then moved on (probably didn’t like what it smelt!).
I haven’t seen the other hog that was running around all over the place last night but there is still time. Likewise I haven’t seen the previous resident of the hog house since last Thursday so hope its ok as it had been a regular visitor until the hog fight that same night.
Hi Hogmeister,
Yes, I should have said ‘extra’ endearing! I did the same as you when the hog came up to me – kept really still. I wouldn’t want to habituate the hogs in any way to humans, so it isn’t something that I would want to encourage, but it just happened. Sounds like it was the same with you.
Re. the patrolling. They don’t seem to be here patrolling every night, so I guess they are patrolling someone else’s garden!
Very quiet last night when I was there to watch – haven’t checked the video yet. Only 2 hogs, but even so there was a biffing incident! And not content to biff the poor hog once, he went off and came back again to give an added extra biff, before dashing off again. Luckily the biffed hog wasn’t too upset and fairly quickly unrolled and went to tuck in to some food.
Just checked my wildlife camera and saw a hedgehog on lawn at 2am on 19th April. Only a still, did not trigger video though had a video last summer of one feeding. About to get some hedgehog food and put out but will have to stop the other wildlife seen – Fox, badger and cats from eating it!
Hi Nic,
Well it was pretty quiet here too until around 11pm. I had one hog arrive around 9ish but when I took a peak around 11 I saw there was a hog rolled up on the patio with another hog not far away (probably the one that had done the bashing to get the other hog to roll up) then another hog run past and went straight in to the hogitat house. The other hog then run off whilst the rolled up hog, still snorting away, then unrolled, stopped snorting, and slowly walked off but not before having a feed.
So I had 3 hogs in play 2 male for sure but maybe the third was a female. I will take a peek in the hogitat when I get a chance as there seems to be more activity going on in there in the past 2 nights than the whole of last year when I first put it out (it was an Xmas 2016 present).
Well there was a hog in my home built house, came out at 8.20, but I couldn’t positively identify which one. There was no patrolling tonight and I think it headed off on its evening stroll.
The hog that was bashed last night has been back around 10 (I don’t think it was the one in the house) and has done a bit of a smash & grab on the food, but still had time for a bit of air sniffing, and has already departed (its like it knew it was on another hogs terrority but smelt the coast was clear and it came in quick, had a bite to eat, checking for smells to avoid another bashing).
My comments above is me only surmising as to what I see but wish I could make more sense of the hogs and their actions as I’m often left baffled as to what they are all up too.
Hi Hogmeister
The hogs don’t have territories, as such they just have sort of ranges which overlap. They defend wherever they happen to be. I have found here that there is a bit of a pecking order with the same hog usually coming out top – who I call the Boss Hog. Boss Hog changes, though, from time to time. Because they have larger ranges than the females, the total number of male hogs visiting is likely to be more than the total number of females, they just maybe don’t visit quite so often as they spend some of their time in other parts of their ranges.
Sometimes different hogs will use the same hog box, but not usually at the same time.
I think if there was a female there you would probably know, because the hog who was doing the biffing would probably try to make advances to her (between biffing the other hog to make sure he stays out of the way).
The one sniffing might have been checking to see if there were any other males around he might want to biff, or a female, as well as, as you suggest, checking the coast is clear. Maybe even checking for predators, too.
When I used to see some of the more ferocious rolling ups I used to get worried about the poor hog, but they seem to unroll after varying lengths of time and just carry on where they left off – as long as the biffer doesn’t roll them up again! I had one hog here once who had several males rolled up and at the same time he was trying to court more than one female! Every time one of the males started to unroll, he seemed to have some sort of radar and dashed over and rolled him up again. Not sure how impressed the females were with his antics.
Glad you are enjoying watching the hogs so much.
Hi Nic,
Yes they seem pretty robust little critters dont they especially when you see what a bashing some of them take.
I always enjoy watching the hogs as I know you do as well. The more I watch them the more I learn about them and bouncing things off you and others on the forum helps as well.
Anyway it has been quiet the last 2 nights only 1 hog munching on the food in peace without any interuption. Also no residents in the hog houses either. I have been topping up the food before I go to bed for any late arriving hogs. Friday morning there was still food left but this morning all gone (maybe a early morning hog or the local cats! I must invest in a trailcam to see what happens when I’m asleep it might prove quite interesting).
The good news is, although I didnt see any hogs until over a week later this year, they have been more evident than last year but still a bit down on 2016 (which was also the only year I saw hoglets since the hogs put in a reappearance in 2015 after an abscence of many years but I live in hope for this year).
Just took a peek in the hog houses. I have a snoozing hog in the home made hog house (be interested to see if I recognise it when it appears) but the hogitat remains empty.
When they are resident they usally pop out around 7.45ish within 10/15 minutes after I put out the food as I guess they can smell it. They then often return to the hog house after about 30 minutes and then come back out again when Its getting dark for their evening stroll.
I know it wouldn’t be good to see them out during the day but its nice to see them when there is still some daylight around as we head towards dusk as you can appreciate more what an attractive mammal a hog is.
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