Abstract
Following the development of demand-feeding systems, many experiments have been conducted to explore feeding motivation and feed intake in farmed fish. This work aims to review a selection of studies in the field, focusing on three key factors, related to demand feeding and fish welfare. Firstly, we outline how demand feeders should be considered when developing feed management strategies for improving welfare in production conditions. Secondly, via laboratory demand-feeding experiments, we show self-feeding activities depend not only on feeding motivation and social organisation, but also on individual learning capacity and risk-taking behaviour. Thirdly, we report encouraging results demonstrating that when presented with two or more self-feeders containing complementary foods, fish select a diet according to their specific nutritional requirements, suggesting that demand feeders could be used to improve welfare by allowing fish to meet their nutritional needs.
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Acknowledgments
Most of the direct exchanges between the contributors to this review were supported by the COST action 867: Welfare of fish in European aquaculture (Chair: Anders Kiessling). We would like to thank Nadia Aubin–Horth (Université Laval, Québec) for her attentive re-reading of the manuscript.
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Attia, J., Millot, S., Di-Poï, C. et al. Demand feeding and welfare in farmed fish. Fish Physiol Biochem 38, 107–118 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-011-9538-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-011-9538-4