Development of a behavior system: Dustbathing in the Burmese red junglefowl (Gallus gallus spadiceus): II. Internal factors.

Why in earth? Dustbathing behaviour in jungle and domestic fowl reviewed from a Tinbergian and animal welfare perspective

“…Chicks of a mutant featherless line were kept on a wire floor and given 1-h daily access to sand. In the same way as previously reported for normal chicks (Hogan et al, 1991), deprivation resulted in increased dustbathing behaviour at the second week of life. Moreover, when a dustbathing bout was interrupted by the experimenter, the birds compensated by dustbathing more next time they were given access to sand.…”

“…The different elements of dustbathing appear separately in the developing junglefowl chick, with bill-raking seen as early as day 2 and the other elements appearing gradually until the day 10-12 after hatching (Kruijt, 1964). Very little dustbathing behaviour is seen in junglefowl during the first week after hatching, but the behaviour increases rapidly during the second week until it stabilizes at week 4 (Hogan et al, 1991). An effect of deprivation is present as early as day 8, in that birds compensate for a longer delay of first access to dust by more dustbathing (Hogan et al, 1991).…”

“…Very little dustbathing behaviour is seen in junglefowl during the first week after hatching, but the behaviour increases rapidly during the second week until it stabilizes at week 4 (Hogan et al, 1991). An effect of deprivation is present as early as day 8, in that birds compensate for a longer delay of first access to dust by more dustbathing (Hogan et al, 1991). A diurnal rhythm with a peak in the middle of the day was found as early as at 14 days of age and, although less accentuated in young birds, the dustbathing activity becomes more concentrated around the daily peak as the birds grow older (Hogan & Van Boxel, 1994).…”

Structure and development of behavior systems

“…chicks, as soon as dustbathing behavior is seen, at about 1 week ofage, it is controlled by the effects of dust deprivation. Hogan, Honrado, and Vestergaard (1991) found that deprivation effects could be demonstrated at as early as 8 days of age and that they did not change over at least a 4-week period (see Figure 4). (It should be noted that once a chick has experience at dustbathing in sand, longer periods of dust deprivation are necessary before it will show "vacuum" or "sham" dustbathing on wire mesh.)…”

The Development of Animal Behavior: From Lorenz to Neural Nets

“…The function of this behavior is to remove excess lipids from the feathers and to maintain good feather condition (van Liere and Bokma 1987). Unlike the development of feeding behavior in rats and chicks, dustbathing is deprivation dependent as soon as it appears in the animal's behavioral repertoire (Hogan et al 1991). Thus, in this case, chicks do not require functional experience to connect the motor mechanisms with the central dustbathing mechanism.…”