The Cannibalism Preventing Properties of Oat Hulls

THE work herein reported is a continuation of the studies on cannibalism in poultry reported by Miller and Bearse (1937). In that paper, evidence was presented to show that oats have cannibalism preventing properties. This article reports the results of an experiment designed to determine which part of the oat carries the cannibalism preventing property and in addition, to determine whether manganese and wood fiber would prevent cannibalism. As denned in the above-mentioned paper, cannibalism is considered as a vicious habit of picking toes, comb, vent, feathers, and other parts of the bird’s body. EXPERIMENTAL Wood fiber in the form of spruce dust was included in this experiment to give another source of fiber probably not complicated with the same possible vitamins, minerals, or other nutrient factors. A manganese sulfate ration was included because oats contain substantially larger amounts of manganese than corn. Corn was used as the principal ingredient . . .