HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bley, T. A. G. Articles by Bessei, W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bley, T. A. G. Articles by Bessei, W.

Recording of Individual Feed Intake and Feeding Behavior of Pekin Ducks Kept in Groups

Farm Animal Ethology and Poultry Production, University of Hohenheim, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany

¹ Corresponding author: bessei{at}uni-hohenheim.de

The temporal pattern of feed intake for individual ducks kept in groups was studied using a radio frequency identification system, to enable the continuous recording of feeding characteristics for a large numbers of animals over long periods. A total of 50 male ducks were used in experiment 1 and 480 male and female ducks in experiment 2. The bird:feeder ratio was 10:1 for both experiments. The birds were fed with a commercial pelleted duck grower ad libitum. For experiment 1, the BW, the amount and duration of feed intake, the number of meals, meal size, and feeding rate were recorded for ages from 3 to 7 wk and from 4 to 6 weeks for experiment 2. On the basis of the number of meals per day, the birds were assigned to 3 meal categories: high (H), low (L), and intermediate (I). The L-type ducks showed a higher feed consumption, BW, and meal size than I- and H-type ducks. The pattern of meal type and the interrelations among meal type, BW, feed intake, and other characteristics of feed intake were consistent for both experiments, throughout the experimental period. The relative frequency of pauses between feeding was plotted against the duration of the pauses for the H- and L-type ducks. The H-type birds showed a high number of pauses of less than 30 min in duration. The frequency of short meals declined with age for both meal types, whereas the frequency of larger meals increased.

Key Words: duck • radio frequency identification • feed intake • behavior