Abnormal Appetite of Laying Hens in Feeding Experiments

Abstract

APPETITE or hunger may be defined primarily as sensation resulting from need for food. Appetite may be mild hunger. With the chicken it may be that hunger or appetite is in a measure associated with habit since hens after having consumed their fill of any feed are passive, but will immediately recommence eating should a new supply of the same feed be added to the partly filled trough, a frequently repeated operation. Reflected light may also play a distinct part in the urge of chickens to consume certain food, as is witnessed by the picking at a gold ring or other shiny metal brought before them. This too is shown by the fact that chickens as a rule prefer oyster shell or cystalline calcite or other shiny material to the dull nonreflecting rock limestone which serves the same purpose of supplying calcium.Experiments have shown that many chickens prefer certain .