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The Meal Eating Response of the Chicken — Species Differences, and the Role of Partial Starvation¹

Department of Nutrition, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Chickens with access to two 1-hour meals daily from 1 week to 17 weeks of age consumed starvation levels of food and exhibited hypercholesterolemia in comparison with ad libitum-fed controls. Five daily 1-hour meals allowed 5-week-old chickens to consume as much feed as, or at least not significantly less than, their ad libitum-fed controls. Nevertheless, the meal eaters utilized their food less efficiently than the nibblers and gained less weight. In another test, with 2-week-old chicks, the effects of two or five daily 1-hour meals on food consumption, growth, body composition, blood cholesterol and glucose tolerance were measured over a 30-day period. Both meal eating regimens caused depressed food consumption and growth and gave rise to hypercholesterolemia, decreased body fat, increased body water, and an elevated fasting plasma glucose level. Five daily 1-hour meals were insufficient to permit maximum weight gains of 2-week-old chicks during their period of rapid growth. An experiment with young female rats (5 weeks after weaning) makes it appear doubtful that a basic difference exists between rats and chickens in their response to meal eating.

Manuscript received 26 May 1969.