Tucked tails? Act fast!

Objective

Diversify enrichment material with a simple and economical solution.

Description

This trick involves trying to stop unwanted behavior right when it initially appears. Providing enrichment material to piglets in the weaning and fattening phases is already routine on many farms that have embarked on the difficult journey of not tail docking.

We have learned to recognize the presence of a "biting" animal before we see blood. It is at this point (the start of abnormal behavior, when we observe tails tucked low and often blackened by the biting animal's saliva residue becoming dirtied by the environment) that we must intervene.

At this point we must offer additional and different enrichment material in the pen. A material that has not yet been tested, but which in my experience can give excellent results is... the mop!

It looks like commonly used natural cotton rope, but the mop provides an enrichment that pigs love, simply by having many strings together. Hung preferably in the center of the pen, away from the feeding or defecation area, it becomes excellent entertainment which, in most cases, makes a big difference...

Warning! It must be made of cotton, without any plastic parts: it is less common to find these on the market, but there are several types.

Logically, when the pigs have to be moved or the barn has to be washed, the "chewed up" mop (they last a long time) has to be replaced and... maybe we can use it to acclimate replacement sows!