The effect of introducing heat stress on the eating and drinking behavior of laying quail

Abstract

Abstract The high environmental temperature affects the quail’s physiology and performance and can be indicated by their behavior. This study aimed to see how introducing heat stress in different floor spaces affects laying quail’s behavior. The study was designed as completely randomized, consisting of two floor spaces, 225 and 164 cm2/bird represented by 16 and 22 birds per cage. There were six replications per treatment, resulting in 228 used in this study. Ethogram was used to analyze behavioral patterns. Eating and drinking behavior of quail were recorded by CCTV for 24 hours and repeated thrice. The record was analyzed by sampling the first minute every hour. The data is shown as a graph of eating and drinking behavior for 24 hours. The result revealed that the drinking behavior of the low floor space (164 cm2/bird) from 00:00 - 23:00 was higher than the high floor space (225 cm2/bird). The eating behavior of quails from 00:00 - 23:00 was not different in the two conditions. Based on this study, heat stress from lowering floor space per bird in cage cause increasing drinking behavior.