# Implementation of a Pig Toilet in a Nursery Pen with a Straw-Littered Lying Area
## 4 Discussion  
In the present study, a pig toilet was established in a pen for weaner pigs and their excretory behaviour was analysed in detail. Per ten-hour-observation day, an individual piglet had 7.1 \(\pm\) 1.4 defaecations and 4.8 \(\pm\) 0.8 urinations on average during video observation. Thus, we observed 11.9 eliminations per piglet and day in total. In previous studies, the excretory behaviour of suckling piglets or fattening pigs was investigated, whereas, to the best of our knowledge, there is hardly any information on weaner pigs from previous studies. [PERSON] et al. [10] observed 16.4 eliminations on average per piglet within the first 24 h of life. For six-week-old weaner pigs, four to seven defaecations per day (24 h) were reported [25], while no information on the number of urinations is available. According to [PERSON] et al. [26], fattening pigs had 17.9 \(\pm\) 0.32 eliminations per animal and day, on average. They observed that 67% of all excretions occurred during the daytime between 06:00 and 18:00, which was very similar to the observation period of the present study (08:00 and 18:00). In the study by [PERSON] [26], the amount of 67% of all excretions corresponded to a total of 11.9 eliminations per animal occurring between 06:00 and 18:00. This is completely in line with the results of the present study, indicating that the number of excretions per day is similar for fattening and nursery pigs. Pigs mostly eliminate during the daytime, and the reduced number of excretions at night is probably related to the decreased activity of the animals. Various authors confirm that the activity of pigs decreases with the beginning of twilight [27; 28; 29]. The observation that pigs divide their environment into functional areas and that these are consistently respected was confirmed in the current study. Consequently, the straw-covered area of the pen was mainly used for activity, resting and rooting behaviour, while the pig toilet was used for the purpose it was made for, with eliminations mainly taking place in the defaecation area of the toilet. Feeding took place in this area as well, because the automatic feeder was installed there. The idea of combining feeding and the defaecation area was based on the deep-litter-pen model presented by [PERSON] et al. [30], where the littered lying area was located lower than the elimination area and the latter was equipped with a feeder. As in the studies by [PERSON] [31] and [PERSON] et al. [32], we used the pigs' faeces to mark the defaecation area of the pig toilet. [PERSON] et al. [33] observed that sows that were fixed in crates stretched their heads as far as possible away from the feeder and the lying area while excreting, which could be evidence of the animals not wanting to excrete in the feeding area, though they were not able to do otherwise. However, during the experimental period in the present study, it was not observed that the pigs tried to move away from the feeding area for excreting. On the contrary, they immediately accepted the defaecation/feeding area and almost all eliminations were carried out there. A control group could provide more information about the excretory behaviour of pigs when no toilet is provided in the same pen. However, due to the conditions on the farm (number of animals, structural conditions), we were unfortunately unable to integrate a control group into the study. In the area of the toilet that was intended to be used for urination, almost no excretory behaviour was observed. The animals entered this area for drinking but hardly ever for urination. According to [PERSON] et al. [22], the overflow drinker and the humid environment should have encouraged urination in this area, which was not the case here. One reason for the poor use of the urination area could be the structural conditions, as with a width of 44 cm the urination area seemed to be rather narrow; the animals could only turn around with difficulty and had to leave the area backwards with increasing size.