ELECTRONIC FEEDER TO RECORD INDIVIDUAL
FEED INTAKE OF RABBITS RAISED IN
COLLECTIVE PEN

Julien Ruesche, Jean-François Bompa, Virginie Helies, Claude Trainini,
François Richard, Mathias Aletru, Ingrid David, Hervé Garreau

► To cite this version:

Julien Ruesche, Jean-François Bompa, Virginie Helies, Claude Trainini, François Richard, et al. ELECTRONIC FEEDER TO RECORD INDIVIDUAL FEED INTAKE OF RABBITS RAISED IN COLLECTIVE PEN. World Rabbit Congres 2024, Oct 2024, Tarragona, Spain. 2024. [hal-04796128](https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04796128v1)

HAL Id: hal-04796128

https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-04796128v1

Submitted on 21 Nov 2024

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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RÉPUBLIQUE
FRANÇAISE

Liberté
Égalité
Fraternité

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Julien RUESCHE
Jean-François
BOMPA
Virginie HELIES
Claude TRAININI

François RICHARD
Mathias ALETRU
Ingrid DAVID
Hervé Garreau

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# Precision feeder to record individual feed intake on rabbits raised in collective pens.

Raising rabbits in parks meet the end of age cage expectations. We have developed an electronic feeder for animals raised in collective pens. The data obtained enable to calculate feed efficiency and gain a more precise understanding of the social and feeding behavior of group-reared animals.

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1. Electronic Feeder in park</figcaption></figure>

## The feeder was tested on 16 rabbits from 38 to 70 days of age, main results were:

### Accurate feed intake recording

Feed intake were measured to the nearest 0.5 gr.

### 1 visit=1 animal

All visits to the feeder were associated to one and only one animal even if 2 rabbits wanted to access the feeder at the same time.

### Normal feeding behavior and growth

* Average daily gain over the period: 37.1±6.2g/d, increases with time (figure 2)

* Average Feed Conversion Ratio : 3.61±0.46

* Average weight at 70 days : 2340 g

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Daily feed intake (red), number of visits per day (blue) and animal weight (green) over the growing period</figcaption></figure>

Following the good results obtained from this 2 places prototype, a 4 places feeder, located outside the pen will be developed soon in order to obtain records in a larger group of 32 animals.

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Centre
Occitanie-Toulouse

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GenPhySE, Université de Toulouse, INRAE, ENVT, F-31326 Castanet Tolosan, France
julien.ruesche@inrae.fr