Behavioral Enrichment

Behavioral Enrichment, or B.E. for short, is such a hugely important part of animal care. I cannot stress this enough. Good BE replicates foraging or hunting techniques used in the wild, exercises the animal's mind and body, and helps to alleviate boredom.

One way of incorporating BE into an animal's life is through its food. I have had to do a lot of that this week with Nyani, the Hamadryas baboon I'm taking care of. For example, take a look at her mid-day meal!

The whole spread!

First, I cut up her fruits and veggies into tiny pieces. This gives her more to look for and hopefully it will take her longer to get through her meal. I wrapped each piece in a crumpled strip of newspaper, stuffed a few into a toilet paper roll, and wrapped it all up in newspaper like so.

I continued to wrap the pieces of fruits and veggies in paper balls and filled up a small box. The yummy banana slices she loves were wrapped up and put all the way at the bottom.

Nyani also gets two feet of "browse" every week as part of her food-BE. Other ways to incorporate BE directly into a diet is to add spices, whole fruit, frozen juice, pigeon wings, oatmeal, peanut butter, or a myriad of other tasty treats to mix things up a bit. This way the animals aren't eating the same meal day after day. Today I gave her two feet of trumpet vine to enjoy.

I still had a few little pieces left over after that, so I decided to throw them into her enclosure so she had to forage through the paper already on the ground to find them. Since I usually cut up her leafy greens, I left the romaine whole today and stuck it through the bars up high so she could go climb for it. 

This morning, I took her chow and soaked it in water until it turned to mush. Then I mashed it up with avocado oil, a supplement called Missing Link, oatmeal, cinnamon, all her fruit, and some finely chopped carrots. I spread it in her romaine leaf, wrapped it up like a burrito, and tied it up with a paper towel rope. She LOVED it. She completely ignored all the other food I was putting around her enclosure, eager eyes on the exciting load of goodness I still had in my hands. 

Enrichment is particularly important for primates, many of whom can display neurotic boredom behaviors if not properly mentally stimulated. But this doesn't mean it can be ignored for other species! One of my favorite animals to watch receive her enrichment is Kiara, the lion. Her new trainer likes to hang huge boxes from the roof of the arena with a meatball or two inside, and she leaps in the air snarling to get them down. Impressive for a twelve year old big cat! Every species of animal can benefit from enrichment, even if they must be taught how to use it. I even use BE with my rats at home, switching up their food once in a while and hiding it in newspaper balls just like Nyani's. 

This is one of my favorite parts of animal care. I love being creative and thinking up fun new ways to get the animals moving, thinking, and playing. It's a super rewarding feeling when you come up with a successful idea and watch the animal react. Happy animals means happy Christy!

I highly suggest that whether you have a cat, dog, bird, or guinea pig, you try and implement some new and exciting BE for them this week! If you need ideas, leave a comment!

Love and bellyrubs,

Christy