OBSERVATIONS REGARDING THE DURATION OF FEEDING BEHAVIOR WHEN INTENSIVELY FARMED COYPUS (NUTRIAS) ARE FED WITH MAIZE GRAIN AND ALFALFA HAY

he studies on coypu behavior are applied in the development of knowledge regarding ethology, in the coypu-breeding technology, animal welfare and, at the moment, they present great importance for animal protection. The biological material studied was consisted of health adult coypus, belonging to the variety Golden Standard with a similar body mass. The indices supervised were: feeding behavior duration if coypus are fed with maize grain and alfalfa hay according to sex and time slot, the duration of one feeding sequence according to forage consumed, sex and time slot and the number offeeding sequences according to forage consumed, sex and time slot. For realising the purposed aim, each coypu was monitorized (video), individually, 24 hours a day. The duration of feeding behavior when coypus are fed with maize grain and alfalfa hay was 6.624,88±889,69 seconds for males (7,66% of the behavioral manifestations), and for coypu females, the duration of feeding behavior was 5.656,25±372,13 seconds (6,54% of the behavioral manifestations). The most intense manifestations of the feeding behavior took place in the time slots 14-2000 and 20-0200, and the lowest intensity of the feeding behavior manifestations took place in the time slot 0200-0800.