Providing ‘get-away bunks’ and other enrichments to primiparous adult female mink improves their reproductive productivity
This study investigated whether simple, cheap enrichments – ‘get-away bunks’ (a wire mesh semi-cylinder attached to the cage ceiling) and small manipulable objects (balls and suspended chewing items) – could improve welfare and productivity in nursing mink dams (Neovison vison) in commercial farm conditions in southern Ontario (Canada). Experiment 1 replicated a study conducted the […]
Providing elevated ‘getaway bunks’ to nursing mink dams improves their health and welfare
Farmed mink infants (Neovison vison) remain with their mothers beyond natural weaning age. This benefits their welfare, but can stress their mothers and contribute to illness (e.g. ‘nursing sickness’). European studies have explored augmenting cages with structures allowing mothers to get away from their infants (‘kits’); these show that if provided with high, shelf-like structures […]