Agriculturae Conspectus Scientificus, Vol 68, No 4 (2003)

Examination of Free Choice of Rabbits among Different Cage-floors

Zsolt MATICS, Zsolt SZENDRŐ, István RADNAI, Edit BIRÓ-NÉMETH, Mónika GYOVAI

Pages: 265-268

Summary


Rabbits were placed in a block of cages with a floor-area of 2 m2. The animals could move freely among the cages, through swing doors. All the four cages were totally equal, they only differed in the floor (planked by OSB panel, plastic-slat, plastic-mesh or wire-mesh). 24 or 32 rabbits, weaned at 21 days of age were placed into the block. During the experiment (until 10 weeks of age) the free choice of rabbits among the cage-floors was studied weekly with the help of 24-hour video recordings. The soiled and wet (by urine) planked-floor was chosen by fewer and fewer rearing rabbits after the first week. Placing both 24 or 32 rabbits into the block, the plastic mesh floor was preferred. With the increase of age the choice of plastic-mesh, wire-mesh and plastic-slat floor became similar. The increase of both number and weight of rabbits in 1 m2 influenced the acceptance of different floors. Rearing 32 rabbits together, the choice of the 3 preferred floor types became similar at 7.5 weeks of age, while rearing 24 rabbits in a group, it became similar only at 9.5 weeks of age.

Keywords


rabbits; floor; free choice; video recording

Full Text: PDF