Effect of Different Floor Space Allowances on Post Weaned Surti Kid’s Behavioural Activities

The present experiment was conducted to study the effects of different floor space allowances on behavioural activities of post weaned Surti kids. The experimental groups were viz. Control, T₁, and T₂ groups with floor space allowances of 0.8, 0.7, and 0.6 m²/kid in the covered area while 1.6, 1.4, and 1.2 m²/kid in the open area, each group having 6 animals. The time spent on manger (mins/2 hrs) was significantly higher in T₁ (100.22 ± 1.25) followed by T₂ (89.44 ± 1.26) and control (77.27 ± 5.76). Time spent on the water trough (sec/2hrs) (53.41 ± 20.45, 42.5 ± 14.01, and 43.58 ± 12.41) and no. of attempts (nos./2 hrs) to manger (30.66 ± 1.41, 30.16 ± 1.07, and 29.5 ± 0.87) and water trough (2.08 ± 0.37, 2.41 ± 0.45 and 2.83 ± 0.54) showed no significant difference among control, T₁, and T₂ groups, respectively. Time spent (mins/2 hrs) standing outside and inside the shed was significantly higher in the control (10.46 ± 2.85 and 21.54 ± 2.18) than in T₁ (2.44 ± 0.64 and 14.76 ± 0.97), and T₂ (6.70 ± 1.93 and 20.21 ± 1.96). No difference was seen in lying time (mins/2 hrs) for both inside (7.60 ± 3.38, 1.72 ± 0.91, and 1.04 ± 0.49) and outside (0.94 ± 0.47, 0.13 ± 0.10, and 1.71 ± 1.05) and also in agonistic behaviour (nos./2 hrs) such as chasing (4.66 ± 1.34, 4.08 ± 0.73, and 3.50 ± 0.62) and butting (1.91 ± 0.49, 1.41 ± 0.31, and 2.33 ± 0.61) influenced among control, T₁, and T₂ groups, respectively while the frontal clash in control (11.08 ± 1.01) and T₁ (8.58 ± 1.09) was significantly higher (P<0.05) than in T₂ (6.91 ± 0.98) group. The study indicates that animals were able to express normal behaviour in different floor space allowance. However, feeding behaviour was better in group of animals with 12.5% less floor space allowances than BIS recommendation.

• Effect of stocking density on Surti kid.

• Animals were able to express normal behaviour in different floor space allowance.