Why do Hogs visit every night for about a week then just vanish
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For the past 3 years, when I caught sight of a hog in my garden via my cctv I rushed out to buy a nesting box, feeding station and food. They were not impressed with the ready prepared food specifically made for hogs so I give them meaty cat food and scrambled egg, don’t seem keen on the cat biscuits either. After about a week or so they just seem to vanish and don’t see them again until may be following year. I am concerned as my house backs on to fields both front and back and is arable farming and I was told by a hog rescue centre they would never release hogs near arable farming due to the pesticides used. Could it be likely that the hogs succumbed to poisoning from the fields, just seems odd they come every night, eat everything then don’t see them again. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Hi TinyTot66
The hogs could be ‘vanishing’ because of the badgers which you mention in your post under this topic:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/forums/topic/will-my-hogs-come-back-2/#post-43476One problem of pesticides is that they kill insects – some of which are food sources for hedgehogs. So a field where pesticides are used would not be good habitat for hedgehogs from that aspect alone. The best thing we can all do is to make our gardens as wildlife friendly and as chemical free as possible, in part to counteract areas where pesticides are used – for the benefit of all wildlife.
Hedgehogs have quite large ranges (or ‘home’ areas) and so if they find one part of their range not very beneficial by way of food, safety, shelter, etc. they may decide to concentrate on another parts of their range, or even slightly alter their ranges.
I totally agree, I moved into my house 5 yrs ago and basically the garden was a blank canvas. Had it re-designed but then unable to find any landscaper capable of understanding the plans and really had no idea, I think they were builders not landscape gardeners. I am waiting for Joel Ashton to make a site visit in a few months and hopefully start creating my wildlife friendly garden, have decided I want the largest possible size wildlife pond, no pesticides ever allowed in my garden. Planted 2 native hedges 2yrs ago to hide fencing and provide more nesting sites for birds and just about to plant the final one, all have hog holes along various areas of the fencing. Hoping once the garden and all shrubs have been planted hogs might like to take up residence in my garden and keep far away from the fields. One think I am a little confused about the hogs never seem to cover my whole garden, they seem to stick to the first quarter of the lawn where I’ve placed a feeding station so other cats don’t eat the food. They don’t seem to wonder to the very back where they are more likely to find snails and slugs yet they go round and round the same area, sometimes for hours on end. Not worked that one out yet.
Hi TinyTot
Your plans for the garden sound great. It’s useful that you have already planted some hedging. That might also help as a barrier to any pesticides potentially drifting into your garden from the fields.
The next thing is to encourage everyone else in the area to make their gardens wildlife friendly as well. Hedgehogs need many gardens to form a large enough area of habitat – they can travel up to 2 miles a night, so need quite big ranges. But hopefully, when everyone sees how lovely your garden is, they will want their gardens to be wildlife friendly as well.
Regarding the hogs going round and round. You don’t mean going round each other, do you? Because during their ‘courtship’, the male will circle the female, sometimes for hours, whilst she turns round and huffs. It sometimes makes you wonder how they ever manage to have any hoglets when the ‘courtship’ takes so long! But if that is what is happening, it’s good news as it seems likely there are a male and female – so hopefully some hoglets eventually.
Whilst hogs do eat some slugs, they don’t seem, in general, to be especially their favourite food and they only tend to eat the smaller, or medium sized ones. So if there is other potential food around, they may not feel the need to go to the more sluggy areas. But you might find as your garden becomes increasingly wildlife friendly that they might explore further into it – to find beetles, caterpillars, etc. although you may not always see them if they venture into more vegetated areas – but it will be nice to know there is plenty of natural food for them.
Good luck and happy hog/wildlife watching!
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