Enrichment

Enrichment is a hidden hero in wildlife rehabilitation. Providing patients with proper stimulation and environment can ensure that they stay happy during their time in captivity, and can even improve their prognosis. The term “enrichment” is very broad in this context. For the sake of simplicity, I would consider anything more than a bare cage and “standard” diet as enrichment. This is because some patients need very little in their enclosures to ensure they do not injure themselves during the more critical stages of their condition. On the other hand, I have seen patients self-mutilate out of stress, boredom, etc. When you provide these patients with a more stimulating environment, these habits tend to subside and the healing process can continue.

Things like branches/perches, greenery, live fish, tunnels, food variety, food puzzles, hide boxes/private spaces, enclosure companions, water/dirt baths, and time in multiple environments are all common go-to’s when we are thinking of ways to give our patients a little spark to their time with us. Many times, the enrichment options we think of depend on the specific patient. Their species, injuries, and personality/demeanor are all things that are considered when deciding what to provide a patient.

Corvids are a big outlet for enrichment creativity. They get bored very easily in rehabilitation and tend to make a mess of themselves and their enclosures, often making our job harder. They rip off their bandages, tear apart perches, spill water, move towels, and cause all manner of mischief. The juvenile crow in this picture is checking out a food “doughman” that some students made for her. Because she is a young crow, building a sense of cautious curiosity is healthy. Giving her a proper outlet to exert her energy will also make our job of keeping her clean and healthy a lot easier. Some other enrichment we give them is filling an eggshell with treats for them to crack open, puzzle boards, tubes to “stash” their food, giving them a water dish of various items to play with of make “soup”.

This eastern box turtle is enjoying some much needed time in an outdoor enclosure. We typically move our patient turtles to outdoor enclosures during warm months when they are progressing well with their injuries. It is a good chance for them to acclimate to the weather, enjoy the sun, forage from plants we provide, etc. We will also give some of our more critical turtles supervised outside time. Usually to roam in the grass or soak in a bath outside. It’s a good chance to get some sun exposure and stretch their legs. Along these same lines, we will give some of our waterfowl patients tub time with lots of treats to occupy themselves. This is either inside or outside, typically dependent on their injuries and demeanor.

You might not think it, but enrichment can be as simple as hanging a washcloth. This little wren fledgling is begging for food out of a little hammock in the enclosure. This baby and several others will all huddle together in the hammock as a hide. Because it is on the roof of the enclosure, it gives them access to a lot more vertical space. They have perches and another hide on the ground.

For many of our songbird patients, we also provide them with a pan of water for bathing and a pan of dirt for dust baths (sometimes with insects for them to utilize foraging skills). During fruit season, some staff/students take it upon themselves to forage branches of blackberries to secure into enclosures for patients like cedar waxwings, who are frugivores.

This adult groundhog is exploring a new log hide in her enclosure. While we typically give them crate lids as hides, she was chewing them and the metal bars out of boredom. It was becoming an issue because she was destroying all of the crates, as well as causing some bleeding around her gums. While she continued to chew the log, it was a safer outlet. Her bleeding stopped and she was more content in the enclosure overall.