Influence of early environmental experience on development of pecking behaviour in chicks

An experiment was carried out to investigate the sensitive imprinting period and the influence of early experience on feather-pecking behaviour of young chicks. The experiment included 8 treatment-groups: one group of chickens (0F) were reared on sandy floor during the whole experiment period (0–14 weeks); one group (0P) were reared on barren floor; three groups were reared on barren floor for 2 weeks (3P), 4 weeks (5P), or 6 weeks (7P), respectively, and then reared on sandy floor till 14 weeks; the other three groups were reared on sandy floor for 2 weeks (3F), 4 weeks (5F), or 6 weeks(7F), respectively, and then reared on barren floor till 14 weeks. Feather-pecking, ground-pecking, object-pecking and staring at object were measured. The results showed that the most important period of imprinting for feather-pecking behaviour was during first four weeks after birth, especially week 3 and week 4. It was found that the early environmental experience can modify feather-pecking behaviour at later age, but can not completely change it. On the other hand, the environmental conditions seemed not to affect object-pecking and staring at object in this study [Acta Zoologica Sinica 54（6）：955–963, 2008].