PET CARE
Dogs on plots: How many is too many?
M
ore than 85% of
smallholders will
have at least one
dog on their property and
most have three or four.
Fewer keep cats, but of those
who do, the average is three
cats per smallholding. That's
according to research
conducted by the Gauteng
Smallholder among readers a
few years ago.
POULTRY
From page 40
head horizontally or slightly
raised.
So, most of us keep a few
dogs and cats, how many is
too many according to the
law?
According to the by-laws of
most municipalities in
Gauteng, owners are allowed
to keep up to six dogs and six
cats on agricultural land.
Because of the space on plots
the question rarely arises
about how many would be a
good number of dogs. We've
all seen the alarming television programmes where the
animal police have to go in
and rescue a bizarre number
of dogs or cats from a dog
hoarder or the proverbial
“mad cat lady” and we
smugly think it wouldn't arise
on a smallholding. But there
are some questions to ask
about the realistic number an
individual pet owner should
keep:
K Are the animals' living
quarters large enough to
comfortably accommodate
everyone? Is there plenty of
room for them to avoid one
another if they choose? Are
there enough napping and
hiding spots?
K How does everyone get
Drinker design has an
important effect on chick
drinking behaviour. Some
trough designs are better than
others at encouraging social
facilitation in drinking, and
some encourage roosting on
the drinker.
Food recognition by the chick
is complex. They will peck
indiscriminately at various
objects in their environment
such as sand grains, shiny
objects, other chicks and so
on. They achieve success in
finding food mostly by trial
and error.
If reared by a broody hen, the
advantages of being taught by
her tid-bitting for food are
obvious. She uses her vocal
calls to encourage and guide
them to eat the food items
she indicates.
Some starter feeds are made
up into three-dimensional
crumbs to be more attractive.
Studies show that with a ten
hour light day regime, chicks
up to three days old only
spent 30% of their time
eating, but by Day 10, this
had increased to nearly 60%.
Chicks ate 34 times a day on
Day 3 and 123 times a day
on Day 10. Other chicks
were observed to eat solid
feed 25-30 times a day and
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Continued on page 44