Chicks change their pecking behaviour towards stationary and mobile food sources over the first 12 weeks of life: improvement and discontinuities

Chicks (Gallus gallus domesticus) learn to peck soon after hatching and then peck in rapid bursts or bouts with intervals of non-pecking activity. The food sources may be static such as seeds and chick crumb, or mobile such as a mealworm. Here, changes with age in pecking toward chick crumb and a mealworm were measured. Chicks were reared in pairs and their pecking of crumb food was video recorded in their pair housed environment, from food presentation, every third day from day 8 (wk 2) to day 65 (wk 10). Peck rate at crumb food reached maximum levels at day 32 (wk 5), and then declined, fitting a quadratic model, with no sex, sex of cagemate, or box order effects. Within bouts the peck rate was higher and it increased to day 41 (wk 6) and then declined, and here males pecked faster than females. A change in dietary protein concentration from 22% to 18% at day 28 (wk 4) had no effect on subsequent peck rate. Pecking at and consumption of a mealworm in pair housed chicks were measured weekly from wks [5 to 12]. The latency to first worm peck and latency to swallow decreased to wk 8 and increased thereafter. The peck rate to first wormpeck and number of pecks to swallow increased to wk 8 and then declined paralleling the changes with crumb food. The increase in peck rate is coupled with an increase in efficiency in worm catching. The results are consistent with the view that the improvement in pecking ability and accuracy compliments change in nutritional requirement best served by an invertebrate food (IF) source requiring speed to achieve feeding success, especially with live prey. When this food source is no longer crucial these associated skill levels decline. An appreciation of the role of domestic fowl in controlling insect populations, at farm level, that are often vectors in disease spread is lacking.