Chicken toys and environmental enrichment are key as poultry are highly motivated to search and perform their natural behaviors . For this reason , when not sacrifice this chance , they’ll get blase . encourage the construction of natural doings can improve poultry ’s wellness , welfare and functioning of more various and complex behaviour . As flock owners , it ’s imperative to produce astimulating environmentfor our birds . One way we can do that is through enrichment such as wimp toy dog .
Environmental enrichmentis defined as modification of an animal ’s environs to ameliorate their biology by increase born behavior , enhance emotional states and improving physical ontogeny . Enrichment must be stimulating , draw out interest , and meliorate their forcible , behavioral and genial welfare . Barren environment — environments without enrichment — can contribute to poor welfare states , fearfulness , depression , behavior such as plume pecking , cognitive impairment and poor performance .
The to begin with the enrichment is premise , the better . Early unveiling can help our hiss become more adaptable and less fearful . The 2001 study “ reduce feathering pecking when farm laying hen chicks in aviary system ” showed that scupper chicks to litter and sand at hatching lead to less feather pecking than those place at 2 week of age . ensure the incubation environs has like featuresto the coop surroundings , such as a rod , can also facilitate fall some of the negative behaviors .
Providing a flock with chicken toys and environmental enrichment does n’t have to be complicated . Ensuring your flock can express natural behaviors like dustbathing , foraging and perching iskey . This can be as unproblematic as supply passable space in the coop , giving access to botany outside or place a new object within the chicken coop . Here are some great ways to render enrichment .
Space
so as to perform natural demeanour , birds need a sure amount of outer space . The Global Animal Partnership believe the gold standard for animal welfare guidelines , recommends have at least 11⁄2square feet per biddy within the cage and one nest box per six hens .
compound with the recommended amount of space , outdoor access can also offer enrichment . Many natural behaviors such as foraging and dustbathing can be performed in vegetative areas outside the coop . However , some of these deportment can be determine during winter months , and other enrichment may be ask .
Chicken Toys: Perches & Roosts
chick are highly motivated to perch . hobo camp fowl , the wild ascendent of the chicken , often perch to protect themselves against predators . If chicks are provided a perch , they ’ll perch as early as 10 days of age and practice perches for night - metre roosting .
supply a pole as enrichment supports strong-arm development of your flock . Studies such as the “ Farm Environmental Enrichments Improve the Welfare of Layer Chicks and pullet : A Comprehensive Review“have show up that pullets ply with perch amend muscle depositionand off-white strength , top to shrink incidence of feather and blowhole pecking and floor egg . HollyHarry / Adobe Stock
Dustbathing Material
Birds are highly motivated to dustbathe — so much so that hens will dustbathe when they ’re put up in coop without material to dustbathe in . Using finer bedding fabric such as sand , ground wood skimming and peat moss can stimulate this behavior .
Hens specially love dustbathing in a finer material to come home their plume , so adding a bedding material linear is a great elbow room to advance this behavior . When fowl dustbathe , it has been shown to support feather quality , ascendance sponge and be a respectable societal behaviour .
Foraging Material
provide forage material encourages foraging doings . The design of forage is for hens to empathise their environment and find possible food sources . Providing foraging fabric can avail reduce the occurrence of feather pecking .
poulet forage by inscribe and beak atthings within their environment including grasses , woodwind instrument skimming , hay Bale , feed and scatteredtreats . Foraging fabric can be food or nonfood objective that shake peck for your birds , but not all foraging stuff is created equal .
Treats , such as mealworm , increment foraging behavior more than whole wheat or non - nutritionary material like wood shaving . Scattering treat is a smashing way to boost this behavior and reduce feather pecking .
HollyHarry/Adobe Stock
Chicken Toys: Novel Objects
Placing new objects , such as chicken plaything , within the chicken coop is also considered enrichment . How your domestic fowl respond to new target may be an index number of their fearfulness and how well they cope with stress . An model is found in“The effects of environmental enrichment gadget on feather pick in commercially put up Pekin ducks , ” a 2014 work inPoultry Science . Researchers find that provide ducks different coloured whiffle balls with vigor ties attach take to less feather pecking and cleaner , better feather quality when compared to the duck that were n’t provide any enrichment .
turkey are standardized , too . Providing simple things such as pale yellow , an object hung from a string / rod or forage thrown on the ground reduced feather pecking .
When take volaille toys , remember they have better visual sense than humans , so it could be fun to offer different colored objects . In the 2000 written report “ Pecking preferences and predispositions in domesticated biddy : implications for the developing of environmental enrichment devices , ” scientist find the lay hen pick up more at yellow and white string than crimson , blue and dark-green string .
HollyHarry/Adobe Stock
They also distinguish that chickens prefer simple objects to complex objects . A refreshing objective could include train , thimbles , buttons and colored drawings on the walls , brightly emblazon charge card bottle , egg and rattles . However , to remain interesting and new , these objects need to be switch or replaced often . Take care not to provide objects that your batch could destroy and ingest .
Providing chickens with environmental enrichment is an effective agency to encourage the expression of natural behaviors and improve the wellness of our flocks . enrich a flock ’s environment can be as easy as scattering treats for them to scrounge . The character of environmental enrichment can variegate based on things like the time of year , the size of your coop and grant chickens access to the out-of-doors . Select the type of enrichment that function best for your fold !
