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

• Published in: Poultry science Vol. 87; no. 2; pp. 215 - 221
• Main Authors: Bley, T.A.G, Bessei, W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Poultry Science Association 01.02.2008; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: ad libitum feeding; Aging; Animal Feed; Animal Husbandry - methods; Animals; body weight; Diet - veterinary; ducks; Ducks - physiology; Eating - physiology; feed intake; feeders; feeding behavior; Feeding Behavior - physiology; Female; females; Male; males; poultry feeding; poultry housing; radio frequency identification; stocking rate; temporal variation; feed intake; radio frequency identification; behavior; duck
• ISSN: 0032-5791; 1525-3171
• DOI: 10.3382/ps.2006-00446

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[fraction one-half] 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.