How to get pig to stop eating coroplast

[Wheeky]

They used to bite the coroplast when they wanted to come out of the cage but now one of my pigs has taken to eating it. So even when the cage is open, he sits and chews the plastic. They have lots to eat and play with, hay, nuggets, wicker balls, alfalfa wreath, log tunnels. So I don't understand why he likes eating the plastic. I am worried that it will make him ill, but mainly it's just the sound drives me crazy.

How can I get him to leave the coroplast alone? I tried covering it with fleece but that side of the cage is the only place the water bottle will fit so when I tried putting fleece over the edge it just made the bottle leak.

 

[twiams]

I tried lots of things but now i’ve given up haha. It seems no matter what i do they still get a fancy for some correx every now and then !

Would be interesting to see if anyone else has piggies less naughty than mine and have found a way to stop them though !

 

[Wheeky]

I found a temporary solution ... I have a load of bulldog clips and I clipped them all in a line over the edges of the coroplast on the section that he likes to eat. He tried to bite them but after a while gave up.

 

[Hermes]

I have a pig who likes to chew the bars in spite of having multiple other options of things to eat/chew and plenty of space, I find that putting something over/in front of the section he's taken to chewing does help. I use pieces of cardboard which if he chews instead is preferable to the metal bars. Is it not possible to move the water bottle up at all in order to cover the correx? You could always put a platform for the pigs to stand on if necessary though they can reach quite high.

The other thing that I have done, and I realise people may disagree with this, is use negative reinforcement to deter him from chewing the bars. I must admit I've only done this because I'm worried that habitual bar chewing may affect his teeth in some way. We have a can of compressed air which makes a squeaky sort of hiss when you squirt it. Yesterday when he chewed the bars I got my OH to surreptitiously (and it's important your pig doesn't realise you are doing it) squirt the can on the other side of the room in order to make the hissing noise. Hermes immediately stopped chewing, whirred and went and hid (as you'd expect with a sudden noise, though he quickly resumed eating etc.), I haven't actually seen or heard him chew the bars since so I'm hoping he's sufficiently deterred!

 

[Hermes]

The other thing that I have done, and I realise people may disagree with this, is use negative reinforcement to deter him from chewing the bars. I must admit I've only done this because I'm worried that habitual bar chewing may affect his teeth in some way. We have a can of compressed air which makes a squeaky sort of hiss when you squirt it. Yesterday when he chewed the bars I got my OH to surreptitiously (and it's important your pig doesn't realise you are doing it) squirt the can on the other side of the room in order to make the hissing noise. Hermes immediately stopped chewing, whirred and went and hid (as you'd expect with a sudden noise, though he quickly resumed eating etc.), I haven't actually seen or heard him chew the bars since so I'm hoping he's sufficiently deterred!

So, perhaps unsuprisingly, he quickly became desensitized to to noise and now isn't bothered by it, it would have probably be better to offer a positive reinforcer for stopping chewing but blocking access I think is the simplest option.