Enrichment Ideas for Happy Pigs

Keeping pigs curious, active, and entertained is key to their happiness and well-being. Whether indoors or outdoors, food-focused or just plain fun, these enrichment ideas will keep those snouts busy and tails wagging!

Food-Related Fun

• Snuffle Mats: Sprinkle pellets or treats in a fleece mat for rooting adventures. Feeling creative, you can make your own with leftover fabric, or grab a premade one on Amazon.

• Treat-Dispensing Balls or Puzzles: Encourage rolling, nudging, and problem-solving to release snacks. We love the Bobs-a-lot. Fill with piggy pelleted food, or fresh popped popcorn without butter, oil, or salt.

• Electronic Treat Dispensers: You can buy treat dispensers that you can activate from your phone. Put them up high on a counter or hanging from a doorway where your piggy can’t reach the device and destroy it for all the treats. lol Many have cameras on them and speakers, and when you press the button, it launches a treat. A great way to interact with your piggy while you’re at work.

• Cardboard Box Buffet: Fill boxes with shredded paper and hidden veggies for a rooting treasure hunt. Even more fun, get a large cardboard box, cut big holes so you can fill it with orchard or Bermuda grass/hay. Tape up the top and bottom of the box and let them go at it!

• Rooting Box: Fill a shallow kiddie pool or cut a large box and put some smooth river rocks, hay, or plastic play balls, then sprinkle snackies and watch them push balls and flip rocks to find the goodies. Avoid sand, pigs may eat it and get blocked up.

• Peanut Butter on a Plate:  Smear fresh ground almonds or peanuts, or health PB (not that sugary oily stuff) across a plate and watch the fun. Make sure it's a thin layer; nuts are good for them, but high in calories. Don’t feed too much.

• Plants: Protect those edible plants with a fence, but leaves that grow up and over, through the fence, are low hanging or fall on the ground, are fair game. Fig trees, non-fruiting mulberry, strawberries, squash, herbs and many other plants work great. Mesquite trees are amazing because pigs love the pods that fall from them. Be sure to research to make sure anything you plant is non-toxic roots, leaves, and fruit. Pigs also love the smell of plants. Sage won't get eaten, but they love to rub in it as perfume. Same with the sap from non-toxic trees.

  
  

Non-Food Fun

• Blanket Burrows: Layer blankets and towels for cozy nesting and rooting. Give lots of textures and colors. It's okay if they shred them, let them enjoy their instinct to nest and burrow. Don’t use sleeping bags, pillow cases, or things they can get stuck in, though. Cut off any buttons, zippers, or closed ends.

• Tarp Play: Nothing says fun more than a big blue tarp. Pigs love to thrash them around, drag them, and shred them. Just a 5X5 size is enough to entertain them and not break the bank when they destroy it.

• Mirror Play: Some pigs love admiring their reflection—instant entertainment! Look for mirrors that don’t shatter, and make sure your pig enjoys looking at the mirror and doesn't want to fight the mirror.

• Toy Rotation: Offer soft balls, baby toys, or crinkly items and switch them weekly to keep things fresh. Make sure there aren’t things in the toys that can be eaten, pellets, beans, catnip, etc. Bouncy balls, that old exercise ball you have lying around... and our pigs all time favorite... the Hula Hoop (get the kind without beads inside). Have some of that drip line lying around in your garage. Pigs love to drag that stuff around the yard.

• Training Time: Teach simple tricks like “spin” or “sit” using positive reinforcement.

• Hide and Go Seek: Hide some high-value treats like walnuts, unsalted shelled sunflower seeds or other goodies around the house or yard before you leave. Keep them wondering where the next treat might be.

• Water Time: Piggies love water on a hot day. Kiddy pools of different shapes and sizes or a wallow, will be a hit. The sound of water moving from a water feature in your yard is always intriguing, too. Make sure you don’t use chemicals in anything your piggy might drink from. Keep pigs away from swimming pools when unsupervised. Shallow water is all they need for fun and hydration.

• Buddies: Pigs are herd animals and do best when they have a buddy. Someone who speaks their language, whom they can complain to when dinner is late or snuggle with at night.

• Electronics: The TV and radio are a big hit at our place. Leave it running when you leave. Find what shows they enjoy. Our piggies love Threes Company.

• Manicure/Spa Time: Spend time rubbing their hooves, petting them, massaging them, and making them feel special. This also helps get them comfortable with cleaning their eyes, ears, and trimming hooves.

• Sit on the Ground: We very rarely sit on chairs over here. We do most of our computer work, and when we watch a movie, on the ground. It gives piggies an opportunity to explore us as humans, sniff us, check us out, push us, and see what we do while also engaging in what we are doing. It makes them feel special.

• Random Rock River: You don’t need water to have a fake river. Make a meandering path of riverrocks in a dug-out trough. You can even sprinkle some grass seed to get some fun growing in there. Pigs love to toss the rocks around. Don’t be mad if your river ends up as an artsy, scattered rock design. Embrace their creative and abstract skills.

• Talk to Them: Pigs are super smart and can learn quite a bit. They might not know every single thing we say, but the way we say it shares our emotions and lets them connect with us. Sing them a song, tell them how your day was, and when you need an ear to listen, they are there.

• Talking Buttons: Pigs can learn to use talking buttons to communicate with you. You can pick a set of them up on Amazon. Just be warned that if you program a button to say “feed me,” they won’t stop pressing it. LOL!

  
  

Rotate enrichment activities often to keep your pig curious, engaged, and full of personality. Thanks for caring enough about your piggy to read this. Snout Kisses and Hogs from all of us at Snouts of Sedona.

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