Hi TyburyDuck
Like Penny says, hay can be good and if you are hoping for the box to be used for sleeping in, it’s not a bad idea to put a little in the box to start it off and then some more outside. Some hogs are very fussy about what they will use and may take it all out again but that’s their choice!
When a hoglet here decided to make a nest last autumn, he used quite a lot of long grasses woven in amongst the leaves, so you could try that. The box was being used for feeding at the time, but he just started building his nest on top of the food bowl! Someone else on the forum said a hog there made a nest completely out of grasses, but I think that was outside.
Trimmings from shrubs and prunings might be used. Any of the sort of things they might find in the wild, really. I don’t imagine they will need a very elaborate nest at this time of year if they are using it just for sleeping. A nesting female, though, would make a more elaborate one, but really the same thing applies – leave lots of likely materials nearby so she wouldn’t have to go too far to find it. I have heard of them even using some herbs in the mix!
Might be a good experiment to put piles of different things and see which were most popular!
