THE REQUIREMENTS OF WEANED PIGLETS FOR A TRAINING PERIOD PRIOR TO A CHOICE-FEEDING REGIME

The requirement for a training period prior to a choice feeding regime was assessed using 36 weaned piglets whose initial live weight was 6. 2 (s.d. 1.21) kg. Two foods (H and L) were offered ad libitum as the c hoice and these were similar in energy but differed in crude protein ( CP) concentration (291 g/kg and 155 g/kg fresh matter respectively). T he pigs were subjected to one of three training treatments : treatment ALTERNATE allowed piglets the two foods separately on alternate days for 6 days, followed by a free choice of the two foods; treatment THRE E allowed 3 days of one food followed by 3 days of the other prior to the free choice; treatment CHOICE gave the animals free choice immedia tely. Piglets on a fourth treatment, CONTROL, were given a single food M (242 g CP per kg fresh food) as a control. Weight gain (0.60, 0.59, 0.59 and 0.61 (s.e. 0.005) kg/day) and food intake (0.776, 0.752, 0.7 71 and 0.747 (s.e. 0.010) kg/day) did not differ significantly between treatments ALTERNATE, THREE, CHOICE and CONTROL respectively in the 1 9-day post-training period. A significant difference was seen in the p rotein consumption (0.145, 0.150, 0.139 and 0.177 (s.e. 0.005) kg/day) . This together with a tendency for the proportion of food H selected to decline as the growth period progressed, indicated that newly weane d piglets are capable of regulating their protein intake when offered a free choice of two foods differing in their CP concentration, withou t a necessity for an initial training period.