Hi GreenJelly1
Welcome to the Forum. It’s good to hear about the hogs there.
The thing about marks on the hogs is that although you may not have marked them, someone else may have done. Hogs can travel up to 2 miles a night so there is plenty of potential for other people to mark them. Hogs do not naturally have such marks on them. Hedgehogs sometimes have a few white spines in very small areas, but not stripes and spots. Things do appear differently in infra-red light, but many of us have night cameras and so are used to the effects of them.
But also some hedgehos ‘acquire’ markings when they are older. Very many people film hedgehogs regularly and over long periods of time and so it becomes obvious when someone has marked hedgehogs which might be already recognisable to people by their natural markings. There are some natural slight variations in their colouring and particularly in their skirts which can have gradations of colouring along their length, as well as natural variations in facial markings, but not well marked stripes and spots on their spines.
There is some new information about marking hedgehogs from Hedgehog Street: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/marking-hedgehogs/
If the hoglet already weighs 440g and is still being offered supplementary food it should easily make the recommended minimum weight for hogs already in the wild, which is 450g. Sadly even if hogs reach that minimum weight, hibernation is a very dangerous time for them and some will not survive regardless of how much they weigh. so it’s always a worrying time, but always a joy when old friends return in the Spring.
If you want the other hoglet to use one of your other houses, it’s a good idea to leave their nest building materials of choice nearby. i.e. medium sized leaves, long grasses, etc. nearby and place a handful of material in the boxes. Most hogs prefer to build their own nests and are experts at it – even hoglets who seem naturally to know how to build them.
I expect you already do, but it’s a good idea to leave water available to the hogs all day every day, just in case a thirsty hog comes out during the day. Wide but shallow plant saucers are ideal for that.
I hope the hogs there continue to do well.
Good luck and happy hog watching.
