conceive of that you lived your entire biography in a confined area — say , a 500 - square - foot room . Imagine that , within this room , somebody served you the same intellectual nourishment every mean solar day at the same fourth dimension . visualise your furniture bolt to the level and your few possessions never changed . Imagine you always saw the same persuasion , smell the same olfactory property , heard the same sounds .
You ’d in all likelihood get bored , would n’t you ? You might even go a little crazy .
The old locution “ Variety is the spice of life sentence ” does n’t apply only to us humans . Though they ca n’t express it in words , animals live in confinement often show their ennui , anxiety or depression in ways we recognize . A Panthera leo pace a concrete zoo enclosure . A dog wrawl and manducate up its dog house . A cooped chicken constantly picks on its flock mates . But what if these creature had changing opportunities each daylight to exercise their minds , mother wit and bodies ?
What if , for example , you let the lion stalk a big credit card ball , gave the dog a puzzler toy to extract kibble from and sent the poulet search for tasty mealworm scattered in the straw ? While their boredom might not disappear , research shows that — in many shell — job behaviors such as the ones mentioned would decline .
This is the premiss of environmental enrichment , a boredom - busting practice now embraced by many zoos . As you ’ll learn , it ’s a pattern we can easily extend to our clucky , cooped - up companions — a pattern that will benefit them as well as us , their caretakers . In fact , opportunity are you ’ve been using someenrichment techniqueson your crybaby already .
What It Means
What exactly does this mouthful of a conception mean ? “ The definition I like best is that it ’s an advance in the biological functioning of captive beast resulting from modification to their environment , ” say Nathan Andrews , a endorse professional bird trainer who has worked with wimp in a training / enrichment capacitance for seven years . “ This definition emphasise that enrichment actually does have enrich value , ” he says . “ It causes a positive change . ”
Among various species studied , positive changes admit decrease in tempo , self - aggression such as feather plucking and hostility toward cage mates . It also results in gain in activity , breeding achiever and overall wellbeing .
“ Enrichment efforts focalise on giving animals ascendancy of their environment and opportunities to expend the skill lot they ’re supposed to be work out in the wild , ” says Andrews , who works forNatural Encounters , an animal behavior facility in Winter Haven , Florida .
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Even though chickens have long been domesticated , they ’ve inherited from their wild red junglefowl root a wide-ranging repertory of behavior , such as forage , rubble bathe and roosting . In curt , environmental enrichment consecrate our chickens more opportunity to act like chickens .
A Novel Approach
Novelty and variety are important element of an enrichment computer programme for chickens . For case , tossing mealworms to your flock every day at the same time in the same elbow room eventually loses its “ wow ” broker . alternatively , you would vary the subprogram by dish out mealworms at dissimilar meter and in different way — say , in a newspaper bag or handle dispenser . On other days , you would deputise alternative treats . Shutterstock
“ wimp get tired of matter really quick , ” articulate Grant Shippell , a chicken keeper in Marshall , Michigan , who make it a precedency to vary the food treats he gives his six Barred Rocks .
Shippell recount how his birds swiftly grew bored with the computerized tomography food he provided during molting clock time , necessitating a temporary — and for the chickens , exciting — throw to mordant crude oil sunflower seeds . also , they at first seemed thrilled about the homemade swing he set up in their cage but finally lost sake .
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“ You shift things up ; then , they ’ll be interested when you offer it again , ” Shippell sound out . “ They ’re like us , I guess . you’re able to only hit pizza so many fourth dimension a week . ”
Getting Started
Before establish or expanding an enrichment program for your chickens , Andrews notify first get to jazz your bird and how they spend their time .
“ Enrichment is n’t just randomly adding material that may not have an impression , ” he sound out . “ It involves thinking about the recipient . What behaviour are you targeting and seek to decrease or increase ? ”
If you want to fall feather pecking , for example , judge to estimate how much fourth dimension your volaille engage in this destructive behavior during a set observation stop . Then , once you ’ve reckon out how you want to give them the opportunity to change it — say , by hang a cabbage in their hencoop — and implemented your scheme , catch them again . Has there been a change ? Do your hens spend more clock time savaging the gelt now rather of each other ? If so , hurray ! Your enrichment work . You might consider keeping short letter about what you ’ve try and the results , like a zookeeper would .
Rhoda Peacher
Are you quick to enrich ? We ’ve gathered some theme on the following page to pep up you . Make certain you register our wellness and safety tips first .
Food Enrichment
furious birds spend much of their day foraging for food , and given the chance to roam , domestic crybaby are no exception . These omnivorous fowl dear to search out bugs , seeds , fallen fruit and more . It ’s no surprise , then , that unlike kinds of nutrient enrichment are often a big hit with chickens and their keepers .
Rhoda Peacher , who keep a mixed flock of 18 on her farm in Sherwood , Oregon , append her feathered friends ’ balanced commercial diet with a changing extras menu throughout the year . pasture - wise , winter can be an specially dull prison term for wimp , she taper out . Peacher ’s wench receive foods include dried mealworms , steak pearl , skin and seeds entrust from grapevine - juice - making , Malus pumila pulp ( which she freezes for wintertime use ) , and remnant pasta and pizza . Rhoda Peacher
Paula Cash , another poultry raiser in Sher - wood , Oregon , treats her divers spate of 10 inheritance strain hens to something different nearly every day , too .
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“ I give them Cucurbita pepo , zucchini log , orchard apple tree shedding , scrape and more , ” she says . “ I also develop kale near their coop , so if I do n’t have something else , they get kale parting . ”
Changing Service
deepen up your method acting of pitch also adds sake , and not just for the birds ( after all , you ’ll get to enjoy their feeding frenzy antics ) . To increase active feeding , Andrews explain , you may toss out mealworms onto artificial greensward or spread out them in the grass . Or try rolling crack up corn into a paper lump , hanging veggies on stainless steel skewers made for parrot or hiding food for thought in puzzle feeders .
“ [ With supervision ] a lot of the mystifier feeders made for dogs are good for chickens , ” he says .
Peacher ’s hoot sky-high dig in when she serves them a giant courgette cut in half lengthwise then dust feed into the troughs they make . hard currency ’s chickens relish a squeeze grain enrichment supplement called a troop block from clip to time . Shippell ’s birds are cutting to pluck veggie from a hollow plastic ball — a repurposed domestic dog kickshaw dispenser toy — that he hangs in their hencoop on occasion .
Habitat Enrichment
Unlike wild bird , many Gallus gallus survive much of their life in a restricted and comparatively barren quad : the coop . To give your flock a fresh perspective on their environment , Andrews recommends sporadically moving around or changing their chicken coop furniture , such as rod .
“ Find place they wish to be , and give them chance to be in those places , ” he says . “ You might seek higher perch , lower perching or step alight . ”
you may also change pole size of it and material . For instance , along with their wooden roost , Cash ’s hens delight a jungle gym of three stacked hay bales that she on a regular basis replenishes and moves .
Get Natural
Another fashion to add interest group to your flock ’s habitat : offer up exciting new natural materials for scratching pleasure . If those substrates contain kooky or weedy delicacies to dine on , that ’s even good . Cash cover her lucky birds to leaves in the downfall , and during winter , Peacher does the same with wood chips left from tree work . While gardening , she also dumps blowball and other weeds into their pen . Shippell regularly offer up his chickens a big scoop of plain old filth . “ They go crazy over worm , so every metre they see I have a shovel , they ’re right there , ” he says .
If possible , safely throw your flock new habitats to explore will also enrich their life-time . Shutterstock
“ In summertime , I have a fenced garden where I grow efflorescence and weeds , ” Peacher pronounce . “ Toward the end of October , I countenance the chickens in there to scratch and fertilize the earth for the wintertime . I ’ll bemuse remnant garden source like Japanese radish and endive into their other run , and they ’ll eat the fresh plants when they go back in the spring . ”
A apiarist who shies from pesticides and herbicides , Peacher has also started freeing her flock to cast the large contend chiliad and do eco - friendly pot dominance on her gravel driveway .
“ They love it , ” she say . “ And I have a gratuitous grand crew . ”
Keep It Clean
No manakin of enrichment is entirely without risk . land and other natural substratum , for example , can contain bacterium and parasite . For healthy , dependable boredom - busting , follow these tips :
Enrichment Options
To tantalize your flock ’s dope , hear play euphony or raspberry songs for them , rubbing some fragrant spices on their piece of furniture ( their signified of olfactory sensation is similar to ours ) , or setting up a glistening pinwheel outside their chicken coop . Shippell ’s chickens determine it fascinating — at least for a while — when he advert a mirror in their run . To boost cognitive functioning , try clicker training ; chicken are very trainable . As flock - loving animate being , social enrichment — offering them the compatible fellowship of their own kind and human attention — is important .
you could happen other ennui - busters by expect fellow poultry enthusiasts . Do n’t be discouraged , however , if one or more of your chickens seems unappreciative of an enrichment you think is slap-up .
“ Often , you seek something new and it has no event , ” Andrews says . “ But it ’s important to keep prove and keep your learners in mind as someone and species . ”
Andrews also cautions that great enrichment can sometimes increase your workload ( opine of all that shredded lucre you ’ll have to clean up ) . “ But the improvement in animal welfare is absolutely worth it , ” he says .
This story originally appear in the March / April 2018 military issue ofChickensmagazine .
