The key here to all of these aspects is change. Change
produces mental stimulation by creating new environments,
new situations and new experiences.
Move - move things around, put food in different places, access to different water
sources, and change the parts of the environment the animal can gain access to.
Renew - renew the toys, just like children familiar toys become boring, change toys,
and introduce novel objects, in and out of the animals' environment on a regular
basis.
Refresh - refresh those logs, change them as soon as the donkeys lose interest,
refresh the branches, fresh buckets, toys etc, simply by cleaning them.
Invent -invent new ways of presenting different elements and changing their
environment. Put a couple of pieces of carrot at the bottom of that welling boot, hide
small pieces of apple in the straw, put small hazel branches around their environment
at levels, heights and novel situations.
Natural - try to keep things natural, think of what the donkey naturally needs and
some other factors that we've outlined in this brief introduction to environment
enrichment. If you can meet their natural needs they remain happier and healthier.
There are some benefits to our mind, body and
spirit that we gain from enriching our donkeys
environment. Obviously, using our imagination to
creat enrichment ideas stretches our minds and
on a 'use it or lose it' basis, this has got to be a
good thing. On a spiritual level there is a great
deal of enjoyment and positive wellbeing that we
gain from enriching our donkey's environment and
great deal of comfort we get from seeing them
happier and healthier. All of these things take a
little bit of physical exercise, to move things,
produce things, create things, change things, and
that physical exercise has got to be a good thing
for us too. So you see enriching our donkey's
environment also enriches our own.
Try the 'do one thing'
approach
Just think of one thing each day that
you can do different in your animal's
environment and change it. From
there develop a seven or fourteen day
programme and just write down the
things that you want to change or
move or create and rotate them on a
seven to fourteen day basis so there
is always something new or novel
being introduced to the donkey's
environment.