Pebble toy

What is an enrichment setting ?

The living conditions of laboratory animals are often far from those they would have in their natural environment : social isolation, confinement, restriction of physical activities, standardised food, … These living conditions often lead to ill-being and behavioural problems more or less serious : stress, stereotypies, … Solutions exist to contribute to the animal’s well-being.

Pebble toy

Pebble Toy pineapple is a pebble made of a mixture of 70 to 80 grams of pure cellulose particles and 7 to 10 grams of controlled dehydrated fruit, first intended for human consumption.

This mixture is compacted under precise conditions, in the absence of any binder, to obtain a cylindrical pebble 5 cm in diameter and 3 to 3.5 cm in length.

The Pebble toy can be adapted to different primates (size, species…), and is easy to use.

Size, hardness, mass or fruit concentration can be adjusted on demand

Pebble Toy Pineapple is reproducible in composition, easy to distribute and attractive to animals.

Benefits of the Pineapple Pebble Toy for primates

Three studies were carried out in French primate centres to evaluate the conditions of use of the Pebble Toy pineapple. Here is a summary of the behavioural observations :

• Immediate interest and kept of adult and young primates in individual, and in aviary (Cynomolgus, Rhesus, Saïmiri)
• No aggression
• Duration of use from one to several hours
• In pairs, nibbles and exchanges of Pebble Toy pineapple without aggression
• Does not interfere with food intake
• No impact on faeces
• No risk of injury or toxicity

User benefits

• Easy to store and distribute
• Avoids time-consuming preparations
• No additional equipment or non-biodegradable items required
• No cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting or refilling required
• Stability of the Pineapple Pebble Toy : The Pineapple Pebble Toys are vacuum packed. Stability has been verified by measuring bacterial contamination at 22 months at room temperature.

Control of the enrichment environment

AniBed carries out the following controls per batch:

• Microbiological
• Pollutants
• Food additives in accordance with Directive 1995/2/EC of 20 February 1995 on sulphur dioxide

To to see all the Pebble Toy& enrichment environment

Data sheet