Effect of Equalized Feed Intake on the Response of Chicks to Fish Meal

Abstract

It has been amply demonstrated that the addition of certain crude supplements to both purified and simplified diets stimulates chick growth. The response has been interpreted as indicating the existence of unknown factors in the crude supplements required by the chick for maximum growth since the basal diets were formulated to be adequate in known nutrients. There are, however, alternative explanations that could in part, at least, account for the growth improvement. If, for example, the crude supplements enhence the balance of known nutrients or if they alter the microflora of the digestive tract in a manner favorable to the chick, an improvement in growth would be anticipated. That a crude supplement stimulates growth by enhancing feed comsumption per se warrants consideration and is the subject of the present report.A large population of male chicks from a mating of New Hampshire males to Columbian females was fed a pretest …