Grandin, T. 1988. Environmental enrichment for confinement pigs. Livestock Handling Committee Proceedings of the 1988 Annual Meeting, Kansas City, Missouri.

Pigs have definite toy preferences. If a ball rolls into the manure they will no longer play with it. This is why we used suspended from the ceiling. Then the young pigs are given a choice between hanging chains, cloth strips, and rubber hoses, the animals prefer the cloth strips and the hose over the chain. In a short term initial preference test, the cloth strip was preferred. In a week long preference test the hose was the preferred toy.Soft pliable objects were definitely preferred over the hard chain. There were two different behaviors the pigs performed with the toys. The behaviors were chewing or jerking and shaking. They shook the toy like a dog tugging on a towel. The pigs seldom jerked or shook the chain. It probably hurt their mouths. Pigs will play with chains, but they prefer to play with objects when they are given a choice. The pigs performed a wider variety of behaviors with the pliable objects.All environmental enrichment treatments definitely reduced excitability. [Hardcopy of this article could not be located.]