On Feather Picking and Cannibalism in Pheasant and Partridge Chicks, Particularly in Relation to the Amino Acid Arginine By

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the case of pheasant chicks in particular it could be demonstrated that what is most commonly collectively termed degrees of “cannibalism”, picking of the back and wings, picking of the tail feathers, and picking of the cloaca (cannibalism in its restricted sense) are three, in the main, independent phenomena. At variance with results published by Sirén (1963a, b) no evidence was found in the experiments reported here that the amino acid arginine in any way influences the above mentioned phenomena. In fact, there was no evidence whatsoever indicating that nutritional factors play a rôle in any of the differences found. As far as the feather picking of back and wings (even to the degree that wounds were found) is concerned, behavioural factors are evidently active, since in sexed groups, the female batches picked significantly less than the male ones. The picking of tail and cloaca was not influenced by this measure. Back picking and tail feather picking did not influence the weight gain of the chicks, whereas picking of the cloaca, when occurring to any extent, significantly depressed weight gain.

This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit: