What wood the rabbits prefer as environmental enrichment?

• Grant number: 11/18668-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Frederico Lui
• Grantee: Samuel Wallace Boer dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Research involving environmental enrichment in order to help grow the welfare of animals confined. The enrichment for rabbits is most commonly used wood, but few studies have evaluated these woods that animals prefer to just enrich the well-being. Thus we propose to evaluate the use of different species of wood as environmental enrichment for rabbits weaned at 35 days old. Each treatment is represented by two cages containing four animals each: 1 - North Peroba (Goupia glabra) 2 - cedar (Erisma uncinatum) 3 - Pine (Pinus caribea) 4 - Jatoba (Hymenaea courbaril), 5 - Control Group. Will be assessed the amount of wormwood, the weight at 35 and 75 days and test anxiety through the elevated plus maze.Keywords: performance, enrichment, behavior, well-being. (AU)