The Mutual Benefits of Environment
The Mutual Benefits of Environment
The Mutual Benefits of Environment
The Mutual Benefits of Environment
Enrichment
Enrichment
Enrichment
Enrichment
Donkeys and Mules have 24hrs a day to fill and only four
hours required for deep recumbent sleep leaving 20hrs a day
which they need to fill in the most productive way possible.
Just like animals we often suffer from boredom,
whether it's a young child bored by long summer
holidays, visiting relatives or tormented by a long
drive, as adults we often have to undertake long
boring tasks that are often called work, stuck at a
desk when we would rather be outside playing. In
retirement, we might find we have all the time in the
world and nothing to do.
One of the keys to improving the welfare of our
donkeys is to meet their natural needs. Needs such
as social interaction with other donkeys or other
species, the ability to move and travel over
distances, which in the wild would be between 16
and 20 kilometres a day. Interaction with novel
objects and situations is something that the donkey,
in its natural environment, encounters on a daily
basis. It is also natural for our donkeys to want to
graze for long periods of time. Obviously, in our
beautiful lush green pastures, long periods of
grazing would be detrimental, so we need to find
other ways to meet to these needs. Part of grazing
is also the search for variety and quality of different
plants and food sources.
These natural behaviours form the keys of ways in
which we can enrich our animals' environment. We
can create a track grazing system which controls
the amount of available grass but creates
greater distances for the animal to be able to walk
over. We can introduce non-poisonous bark
covered logs, or even branches with fresh leaves
for them to pick at. Toys can be one of a donkey's
favourite activities, from a wellington boot to rubber
feed bucket, an old football or simply a plastic traffic
cone.Consider simply piling straw and hay into one
spot, we can mix the two together thoroughly so the
donkey has to pick through their rations to find the
best bits. We can put those piles of straw and hay
in different places in the animal's environment so it
might have to move between piles of food. In
certain circumstances we can consider the use of
haynets with small hole which if used safely, might
increase the grazing time of animals on restricted
diets.
Extra handling, you could just be grooming or
picking out feet, training to go over and through
obstacles which in the end result in a safe calm
animal which can be taken for walks along country
lanes or to the local village shops. Interaction with
friends, relatives, neighbours all produce fantastic
environment enrichment.
Learn more about grazing
management and track systems
click here