Hi Dr Robotnik
If you are using it as a feeding box, then it may be useful to line it with newspaper – if you wish. Although feed boxes should be cleaned out more regularly than nesting boxes – with boiling water to reduce any impact of external parasites, so it probably isn’t strictly necessary. It’s really a personal choice.
If you are hoping for the hog house to be used for a nest, then in my experience hogs don’t normally poo, etc. in their nests (in the wild). The thing to remember is that a hog house, to a hog, is just a structure within which it might be convenient to make a nest. They are not like pet cages which pets live in pretty much all the time, so don’t have any choice but to relieve themselves in their cages. If the hogs are building a hibernating nest in a box, for instance, the floor would be covered anyway, with nesting material. I imagine putting something un-natural there could potentially just become a nuisance to a hog.
If a hog is hibernating in there it’s metabolism will slow right down, so that it probably won’t need to pee or poo, until it emerges from hibernation.
