More on enrichment: keeping your animal amused in captivity

November 11, 12:20 PMBaltimore Exotic Animals ExaminerHolli Friedland

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Cages with lots of cage furniture add enrichment to your pet's life.

Training your pet is an interactive way you can enrich your animal’s life. Teaching your parrot to get up on a stick involves its tiny little brain to start thinking. Not only does it provide your pet with enrichment, but it helps to cement that bond the owner has with the animal.

Many exotics cannot be trained like a dog or a bird, but they can learn through behaviorism. Snakes can be trained that if you pet them (with a hand or a snake hook) you will be handling them and not feeding them. If you do the same thing every time you feed your lizard, eventually they figure out you are feeding them when you do that action.

It’s like when you grab a leash, your dog quickly learns that it means they are going outside.
There was a teddy bear hamster whose owner kept its food into a glass jar. The hamster learned that every time it heard the sound made when the owner turned the lid on the jar, he would be fed. He would go to the top of the cage and swing by his back legs. The owner encouraged this behavior by giving a treat every time the hamster did the behavior. The family who owned the hamster were delighted by the antics of the animal. And, it was enrichment for the hamster.

Enrichment is something that everyone should use to keep their animals happy and healthy. Try to think of ways to make your pets’ life a little more exciting and let him use his brain.