Designing enrichment for pigs should be informed by their cognitive abilities and natural behavioral repertoire to provide genuinely stimulating experiences.
Effective enrichment design for pigs requires understanding their cognitive and behavioral capacities. Pigs quickly habituate to static objects that provide no novelty or food reward. Enrichment that engages problem-solving, offers olfactory stimulation through novel materials, or provides unpredictable food rewards maintains engagement and provides the behavioral satisfaction of successful foraging. Rotating enrichment items to maintain novelty, providing materials that can be rooted and investigated, and ensuring enrichment is distributed to minimize competition creates conditions where multiple animals in a group benefit. Behavioral monitoring confirms whether enrichment is producing the positive indicators that indicate genuine welfare improvement.