Abstract
1. | The ability of adult Brown Leghorn cockerels to regulate food intake precisely was tested by measuring their responses to dietary dilutions with 100, 200, 300 and 400 g kaolin per kg diet. | ||||
2. | When changed from their original undiluted mash diet, cockerels continued gaining body weight with 100 and 200 g kaolin/kg dilutions, maintained weight with 300 g/kg and lost weight continuously with 400 g/kg. | ||||
3. | With all dilutions, the birds eventually adjusted weights of dry matter digested per day to the same levels as with the original basal diet. This took a few days with 100 g kaolin/kg, a week or more with 200 and 300 g/kg, and about three weeks with 400 g/kg. They achieved this mainly by increasing consumption of diluted food to maintain their original intake of basal diet. With 400 g kaolin/kg they were unable to compensate fully in amount eaten, but digestibility of the basal diet increased significantly. | ||||
4. | It is suggested that, given the right conditions, fowls may be able to compensate accurately when challenged with a range of dietary dilutions, the upper limit depending on the density of filler used. |