Abstract

Young animals learn feeding through trial and error processes and from social models, especially the parental one (i.e. Suboski and Bartshumas, 1984). Under practical conditions the mother-young bond has been reduced by early weaning in piglets or deleted in artificially hatched chicks. In both cases feeding experiences develop in groups of congeners of the same age. Negative reinforcements of feeding experiences have been demonstrated with diets containing concanavalin A from jackbean seeds (Canavalia ensiformis) (Leon et al., 1991). Preliminary trials suggested that piglets react similarly to jackbean containing diets. The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the capacity of piglets and chicks to influence the feeding behaviour of conspecifics according to their previous feeding experience (negative with concanavalin A, or neutral) and their social reactivity.

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