Light colour preference of growing rabbits

Abstract

The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the light colour preference of growing rabbits placed in a free-choice cage. The experiment was carried out on 128 Pannon White growing rabbits weaned at the age of 5 weeks and placed into blocks (2m2) of four cages. The rabbits could move freely among the four cages (0.5m2 each) through swing doors. The cages differed only in the colour of the light applied (white, yellow, green or blue). The lighting schedule was 16L: 8D. From 6 until 10 weeks of age, infrared video recording was performed once a week (24 hours). The number of rabbits in each cage was counted every 15 minutes. Feed consumption was measured weekly. Between 6 and 10 weeks of age the rabbits significantly preferred white light (28.0%). The preference order was the following: yellow (26.3%), blue (23.4%) and green (22.3%) (P<0.001). No significant differences were recorded in the feed consumption among the cages. In conclusion, the cage preference of the rabbits was slightly affected by the light colour.

Full text

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CommuniCation
Light colour preference
of growing rabbits
Zsolt Gerencsér1, Zsolt Matics2, István Nagy1, Zsolt Szendrő1
1Department of Animal Science. Kaposvár University, Hungary
2MTA-KE Research Group of Animal Breeding and Hygiene. Kaposvár, Hungary
Corresponding author: Dr. Zsolt Gerencsér. Department of Animal Science. Kaposvár University, 7400
Kaposvár Guba S.u.40, Hungary – Tel. +36 505 800 - Fax: +36 320 175 - Email: gerencser.zsolt@ke.hu
ABSTRACT – The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the light colour prefer-
ence of growing rabbits placed in a free-choice cage. The experiment was carried out on 128
Pannon White growing rabbits weaned at the age of 5 weeks and placed into blocks (2m2) of
four cages. The rabbits could move freely among the four cages (0.5m2 each) through swing
doors. The cages differed only in the colour of the light applied (white, yellow, green or blue).
The lighting schedule was 16L: 8D. From 6 until 10 weeks of age, infrared video recording
was performed once a week (24 hours). The number of rabbits in each cage was counted
every 15 minutes. Feed consumption was measured weekly. Between 6 and 10 weeks of age
the rabbits significantly preferred white light (28.0%). The preference order was the follow-
ing: yellow (26.3%), blue (23.4%) and green (22.3%) (P<0.001). No significant differences
were recorded in the feed consumption among the cages. In conclusion, the cage preference
of the rabbits was slightly affected by the light colour.
Key words: Light colour, Growing rabbit, Preference test.
Introduction - In previous experiments on rabbits mainly the effect of lighting schedule
(length) was studied. On poultry, the effect of the light colour on the number of produced
eggs, egg size and weight gain of broiler is well known (Rodenboog, 2001). Similar studies
for mammals are scarce (cattle: Ádám et al., 1990; sheep: Casamassima et al., 1994; horse:
Stachurska et al., 2002). Despite rabbits are active during the dark period and are less
sensitive for the colour of the light, studying its effect has a raising interest. According to
various studies the rabbit’s visual system which consist predominantly of rods, also con-
tains blue-(425nm) and green-(520nm) sensitive cones (Juliusson et al., 1994). According to
Gerencsér et al. (2008) application of blue light had favourable effect on litter weight at 23
d of age compared to conventional white light. The objective of this study was to evaluate
the preference of growing rabbits for cages with different light colours (white, yellow, blue
or green).
Material and methods – The experiment was performed using 1 block with 4 con-
nected cages (32 Pannon White growing rabbit/block) for a 5 weeks growing period; then
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the trial was repeated 3 times using the same cage block and other 3x32 animals were used
(altogether 128 animals). The rabbits could move freely among the four cages (0.5m2 each)
through swing doors. The cages differed only in the colour of the light (white, yellow, green
or blue). All cages were equipped with feeder and drinker. The lighting schedule was 16L:
8D and the lighting intensity was 80-90 Lux in each cage. The walls of the cages were cov-
ered with white plates to avoid light percolation. The rabbits received a commercial pelleted
diet ad libitum. The amount of feed consumed in each cage was measured weekly. After an
adaptation week, from 6 to 10 weeks of age infrared video recording was performed once
a week (24 hours). The number of rabbits in each cage was counted every 15 minutes. The
experiment was repeated four times changing the light colour in each cage rotationally,
thus all of the light colours were applied in each cage. Data were evaluated by means of two-
factor analysis of variance (replications: 1-4; light colour: 1-4) applying SPSS 10 software
package.
Results and conclusions – Results of the cage preference can be seen in Table 1. The
replication had no significant effect on preference (data not shown). Between the 6 and 10
weeks of age the rabbits preferred the white colour light.
The observed preference order was the following: yellow, blue and green (P<0.001). The
preference of white colour was the highest during the first week. Preference for white and
yellow colours was higher than 25%, while that for blue and green colours was lower. The
observed tendencies were identical both in the light (6:00-22:00) and dark (22:00-6:00) pe-
riods. The rabbits could ’remember’ or identify the preferred cages by olfactory stimuli.
Similar results were reported by Dalle Zotte et al. (2009), evaluating the cage preference
with or without mirrors. A more balanced cage choice was observed with the advancing age
of the rabbits. This is due to the increased space requirement together with rabbit’s growth.
Similar results were reported by Matics et al. (2003) when reporting the cage preference in
relation to different floor types. The feed consumption of the rabbits was not affected by the
light colour (Table 2), and by the replication (data not shown).
Table 1. Cage choice (%) of growing rabbits among cages with different light co-
lours.
Age (weeks) Light colour SE P
White Yellow Blue Green
6 33.6c26.2b23.8b16.4a0.38 ***
7 28.3b26.8b22.6a22.3a0.24 ***
8 27.3c25.2b23.9ab 23.6a0.18 ***
9 24.4ab 26.9c23.6a25.1b0.18 ***
10 26.2b26.3b23.3a24.2a0.19 ***
6-10 28.0d26.3c23.4b22.3a0.11 ***
***P<0.001.
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17th Int. Symp. anImal ScIence DayS
In conclusion, the light colour affected rabbits’ cage preference, but not feed consumption.
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Table 2. Feed consumption in cages with different light colours (% of total con-
sumption).
Age, (weeks) Light colour SE P
White Yellow Blue Green
6 25.3 25.4 25.8 23.5 2.30 ns
7 26.1 25.1 26.3 22.5 1.48 ns
8 25.3 21.2 28.0 25.6 1.48 ns
9 22.5 22.8 28.3 26.3 1.38 ns
10 23.1 23.2 28.2 25.4 1.08 ns
6-10 24.5 23.5 27.3 24.7 0.69 ns
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