Hi,
We had a similar issue recently when a badger unexpectedly came into the garden for the first time. Having researched the behaviour I concluded that the badger took the opportunity while the hog was eating from a food dish, but they generally don’t go looking for hogs. The badger has continued to visit nearly every night, and although the hogs initially stayed away for a couple of nights they soon came back. I didn’t put any food out for a few nights after it happened but have now started to spread a small amount of food over the lawn and avoid using food dishes, so when they’re in the garden at the same time there’s no static meeting place. The badger is coming through the hedgehog hole in the gate so I can’t stop him. They’ve both been in the garden at the same time since without further incident.
It is nature and not nice to see, but they all seem determined to come in so my thought process was just to give them all space to move around and stop them feeding in one place.
Hopefully you find a solution. It might help if you could move the box, but badgers are strong and determined so will still try to get to it if they know the food is there. I don’t know how small a gap they can squeeze through but to get to ours from their sett they are getting through an iron railing with about 4 inch gaps.
Jane
