Hey ya’ll!! I’m back with another Piggy Post. I’m so excited to show you this super quick and easy-to-make DIY Food Dispenser Enrichment Toy! As you guys might know I have a mini pet Potbelly pig named Oliver who I adopted around five mons ago or so.
Oliver was living in a suburban neighborhood, wasn’t getting much stimulation or exercise but he was getting a lot of marshmallows fed to him for treats.
When I adopted Oliver he was so overweight he became completely blind due to the fact that he developed rolls of fat that now covers his eyes.
This is a common problem with a lot of mini pigs due to be even more at risk for obesity because of their smaller size. I talk more about this on another post of mine, Pet Pigs | Top 7 Things You Need To Know To Care For Them
Some owners will have their pigs get surgery on their face to solve this problem.
I didn’t want to put Ollie through surgery if he didn’t need to
You can read more about things to know when caring for Pet Pigs Here
Instead, I made a DIY food dispenser that requires him to exercise to get the food out and acts as an Enrichment Activity for him at the same time.
An Enrichment activity is defined by the American Mini Pig Association as:
Improving or enhancing the environment to provide an outlet for natural behaviors and needs through physical and mental challenges.
Pigs are very smart animals, and Enrichment Activities are a great way to stimulate their minds so they don’t become destructive at home.
This DIY Food Dispenser Enrichment Toy was SO QUICK and EASY to make and pretty darn cheap too.
I came up with this idea after failing to find anything online to help me solve this problem, and thinking I could quickly put something of my own together.
It’s months later and Ollie has lost a significant amount of weight we estimated him to be around 180lbs when we adopted him and we think he’s close to 130lbs now.
And guess what?!?!
Oliver didn’t need surgery. We didn’t even really put him on a “diet” we simply reduced his sugar intake, replaced his marshmallows with cucumber cubes and encouraged some exercise.
He isn’t able to see quite yet but he’s soooooooo close, just a couple more months we think.
Read below to learn how we made it.
Materials
- 1 ABS Pipe 4″ / ABS / 2′
- 1 Pvc Dwv Cap 4″
- 1 PVC DWV Pipe Fitting, Adapter, 4″ Female
- 1 PVC DWV Pipe Fitting, Plug, 4″ Male
- Power Drill (Heres the one I use)
- Drill bit attachment (Heres the one I use)
- Jigsaw (Heres the one I use)
You’ll need to decide how large you want the Food Dispenser Enrichment Toy to be (ours is about a foot long)
Instructions
- After you decide how large you want your food dispenser enrichment toy to be, mark it with a line all the way around the PVC tube. You’ll need to have someone help you keep the PVC tube secure while you saw.
- Drill holes evenly spaced apart throughout your PVC. Be sure that the holes you drill are large enough for the type of food you are feeding your pet.
- Attach the cap to one end of your PVC and the threaded cap to the other end. Be warned, once you attach the caps on they are VERY hard to get off.
- Pour food into food dispenser enrichment toy. Screw on the cap to the threaded connector end, and you’re DONE!!!
Wasn’t that freaking easy?!? That’s it you’re done!
The great thing about this DIY Food Dispener Enrichment Toy would work great for a high energy puppy or smart dog breeds, curious kitty or really any other pet!!
Lay the toy on it’s side and let your pet go crazy!!!!
I hope you enjoyed this quick DIY project. Thank you so much for stopping by, I love you guys!!
Let me know if you guys like these kinds of posts in the comments below so I know if I should write more like it!
