The development of a specific appetite for calcium in growing broiler chicks1

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Abstract
1. Growing broilers were fed on a calcium‐deficient diet and allowed access to a separate calcium source. 2. When housed in a group, they consumed enough from the calcium source to supplement their diet adequately. 3. Caging individually inhibited the development of the calcium appetite in most birds even with visual contact between birds and colour cues to the calcium supplement. 4. Birds which had learned to consume a calcium supplement in a group continued to consume the supplement after being caged individually. Intake of the calcium source decreased immediately after the calcium‐deficient diet was replaced with one adequate in calcium, suggesting the existence of a physiological control mechanism for calcium intake.