Husbandry & Management

The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments

Few studies have sought to describe cat elimination behavior in detail and much of the information presently available focuses on factors that potentially cause cats to reject a litter box. Thus, the ethograms published in the current veterinary and scientific...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Housing, Husbandry & Management, Natural BehaviorAnimal Type: Cat

Citation: McGowan, R. T. S., Ellis, J. J., Bensky, M. K. et al. 2017. The ins and outs of the litter box: A detailed ethogram of cat elimination behavior in two contrasting environments. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 67-78.

Behaviour, stress and welfare of Sprague Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus) on diet board feeding for 24 months

Diet board (DB) feeding aims to reduce the health hazards associated with ad libitum (AL) feeding. Rats have to gnaw wood to detach food from the DB, reducing their food consumption. We studied the welfare effects of DB by measuring...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Laaksonen, S., Nevalainen, T., Ketola, J. et al. 2017. Behaviour, stress and welfare of Sprague Dawley rats (Rattus norvegicus) on diet board feeding for 24 months. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 194, 86-94.

Making sense of it all: The importance of taking into account the sensory abilities of animals in their housing and management

In this selective review, examples are given of how different animal species use different sensory modalities in different ways. These examples serve to illustrate that we should not forget to take sensory abilities of the animals that we manage into...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Nielsen, B. L. 2018. Making sense of it all: The importance of taking into account the sensory abilities of animals in their housing and management. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 205, 175-180.

Effects of group housing system, pen floor type, and lactation management on performance and behaviour in rabbit does

This work aimed at evaluating the effects of housing system, pen floor type, and lactation management on rabbit doe and kit performance throughout a reproductive cycle, including categorization of aggressiveness and injuries. Forty multiparous pregnant does were assigned to six...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Husbandry & Management, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Zomeño, C., Birolo, M., Gratta, F. et al. 2018. Effects of group housing system, pen floor type, and lactation management on performance and behaviour in rabbit does. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 203, 55-63.

An explorative study on the effect of provision of preferred and non-preferred enrichment on behavioural and physiological parameters in laboratory ferrets (Mustela putorius furo)

Environmental enrichment is often advocated to refine animal studies. Despite the increasing use of ferrets as an animal model in biomedical research, the knowledge on effects of the provision of enrichment on these animals is limited. Additionally, it is unknown...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Ferret

Citation: Reijgwart, M. L., Vinke, C. M., Hendriksen, C. F. M. et al. 2018. An explorative study on the effect of provision of preferred and non-preferred enrichment on behavioural and physiological parameters in laboratory ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 203, 64-72.

Behavioral and cortisol responses of adult marmoset monkeys (Callithrix penicillata) to different home-cage social disruption intervals

Social separation is an increasingly used strategy to experimentally assess psychogenic stress in nonhuman primates, yet it is also inherently required for captive management. Surprisingly, little is known on the effects of an individual left alone in a highly familiar...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Husbandry & Management, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Duarte, R. B., Maior, R. S., Barros, M. 2018. Behavioral and cortisol responses of adult marmoset monkeys (Callithrix penicillata) to different home-cage social disruption intervals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 201, 117-124.

Nest-building behaviour and activity budgets of sows provided with different materials

Domestic sows are still highly motivated to build a nest before farrowing. Many pig houses have slurry systems that do not allow use of long straw or other bulky materials that could block the drains, which provides an incentive to...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Rosvold, E. M., Newberry, R. C., Framstad, T. 2018. Nest-building behaviour and activity budgets of sows provided with different materials. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 200, 36-44.

The effects of kennel size and exercise on the behaviour and stress physiology of individually-housed greyhounds

Greyhounds are routinely bred and managed for racing and are usually housed in individual kennels. To address the question of whether greyhounds would benefit from an increase in the minimum kennel size specified in the Victorian Code of Practice, the...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Housing, Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Dog

Citation: Jongman, E.C., Butler, K.L., Hemsworth, P.H. 2018. The effects of kennel size and exercise on the behaviour and stress physiology of individually-housed greyhounds. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 199, 29-34.

Effect of litter material and stocking density on bone and tendon strength, and productive performance in broilers

Litter material and stocking density were evaluated on welfare-related variables and productive performance in broilers. Male chicks (n = 744, “Ross 308” strain) were raised on either tezontle (TEZ) or wood shavings (WS) litter, with a stocking density of either...

Year Published: 2017Topics: Husbandry & Management, Stocking DensityAnimal Type: Bird, Chicken

Citation: Vargas-Galicia, A. J., Sosa-Montes, E. Rodríguez-Ortega, L. T. et al. 2017. Effect of litter material and stocking density on bone and tendon strength, and productive performance in broilers. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 97(4), 673-682.

Effect of continuous access to feeding stalls during mixing on behavior, welfare, and performance of group-housed gestating sows in different social ranks

This study was conducted to evaluate a strategy of using feeding stalls to protect low-ranking sows in group-housing systems. Sows (n = 150, parity 1–9) were mixed at weaning in pens of 15 sows. Control pens allowed sows to access...

Year Published: 2016Topics: Husbandry & ManagementAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Wang, L. H., Li, Y. Z. 2016. Effect of continuous access to feeding stalls during mixing on behavior, welfare, and performance of group-housed gestating sows in different social ranks. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 96(3), 386-396.