Toys engage pig’s interest and can help prevent abusive behaviours
At first, the pigs race to the back of the pen after glimpsing the multi-coloured plastic toys Kyla Ballard has attached to their teeter-totter. One pig
Toys engage pig’s interest and can help prevent abusive behaviours
At first, the pigs race to the back of the pen after glimpsing the multi-coloured plastic toys Kyla Ballard has attached to their teeter-totter. One pig approaches, then another, and within minutes the entire pen is sniffing and biting the new toys.
Then it squeaks. The pigs are startled and there’s another mad dash to the back of the pen. However, the pigs are too curious to stay there. They begin taking timid steps to the front of the pen and their enthusiasm is rekindled until there is a swarm of pigs biting, chewing and making the toys squeak...nonstop.
Watching the scene, it’s hard to know who is having more fun – Kyla or the pigs. She’s grinning away, delighted with her charges, as they play with their new toys.
As a farrowing technician employed at R.M. Matheson Farms near Embro, she was keen to be involved in a University of Guelph/OMAFRA study which investigated the durabiity, maintenance requirements and pig interest in two styles of environ-mental enrichment devices: a teeter-totter style design (termed TT) and the Tri-Star, a PVC swing-style apparatus with arms and chains which hangs from the ceiling (termed TS).
Heather Neureuther is a second-year veterinarian student at the Ontario Vet College who organized the study under the tutelage of OMAFRA veterinarian, Dr. Tim Blackwell. She says many pig farmers have used environmental enrichment items such as bowling balls or tires but these touch the ground.
“Enrichment devices are better if they don’t get contaminated with feces,” explains Heather. “So we tried to investigate toys that are suspended, made locally and available for purchase.”
The teeter-totter is manufactured by Trimar Steel in Millbank while the Tri-