ABILITY OF BROILER CHICKS TO DETECT HIDDEN FOOD

The early behavioural reactions of male broiler chicks to changes in t he contents of their feeders were observed at 2-4, 8-10 and 16-18 days of age. Eighteen pens of 4 birds were studied, in the same tropical p oultry shed. Chicks were observed by individual focal sampling and ins tantaneous scan sampling procedures. Two novel feeding situations, M ( ground maize cob) masking control diet C (M/C) and M masking a new die t J (M/J) were compared to a control feeding situation (pure C). The 3 feeding treatments mere tested on three consecutive days over 5 hours with diet C provided dd libitum between the tests. The 2-4-day-old ch icks significantly increased early pecking of M/C day by day but not t he older chicks, and pecking of M/J was not increased at any age. Freq uency of grooming and resting bouts was increased in all masked diet s ituations. Sixteen to eighteen-day-old chicks showed redirected floor pecking behaviour. Broiler chicks in small groups exhibited limited ab ility to peck at masked diets and this ability was reduced while getti ng older. Long familiarisation with a single diet in broilers which ac tivity become only Resting/Eating oriented while ageing, seems to be a cause of problems of identification of a new diet. ''Enrichment'' of the environment should be further studied in meat producing fowls in r elation to feed identification.