Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Handling goats

Agriculture, animal husbandry, goats, Angora, Mohair, handling, behaviour, practical advice
By Dr Clive Dalton

Handling goats

Behaviour

• Goats are a vastly greater challenge to handle than sheep and the first thing you'll need to do is to heighten the yards to prevent jumping.
• Drafting horned bucks can be problems as they won't be able to get along races in yards. They soon learn to go sideways but it's a good idea to dehorn them, though the horns are often handy to hold them by.
• Goats vocalise (bleat or scream) when held and this can add a lot of stress to jobs like shearing and castrating kids.
• Goats are highly suspicious of new facilities so running them through yards before handling them is useful. They have a good memory and know all the escape spots so be vigilant.
• They will face up to dogs and attack much more than sheep will ever do.
• When they get too fearful, they'll lie down and sulk and you can have a smother or injuries as they pile on top of each other with sharp hooves.
  

Catching & holding goats

• Goats are agile and are often tricky to catch. It’s bad practice to grab Angora goats by the fleece as it’s painful (try pulling your hair), and it can damage the skin.
  
• Your best chance if goats are confined is to catch them around the neck to immobilise the head, and then hold their body against your knees or up against the side of the pen.
• If goats have room to move in a yard, then your best chance is to grab a hind leg and pull until you can get a hand around the neck, and again hold it against the pen side.
• If you don’t have a fence, then straddle the goat holding it around the neck, being careful not to be speared in the face by its horns if it rears. The horns are useful handles to hold it, but be prepared for them not to buck and try to get free.
• Bucks with large horns can be completely immobilised if you hold both horns firmly, as it allows you to have so much leverage on their heads.
• To hold a goat long-term, it’s best to turn it over and sit it on it’s backside. Goats don’t like this much, as they don’t have as much padding as sheep.
• To do this, grab the goat by the loose skin on the opposite side in front of the hind leg, pull up quickly, and be ready to set it down on it’s rump.
  

Yards

• Handling goats, even when they are well accustomed to humans, is too great a challenge without some kind of yards.
• The goats get more stressed and so to the handlers and jobs cannot be completed on time so frustration increases and the goats get the blame!
• Goats have good memories and are not keen to repeat bad experiences.
  

Good things about yards

• A good clear lead into the yards so they go in without baulking.
• On a slight slope so animals run uphill as they go through the yards.
• High enough so that they cannot jump out. Regularly handles Angoras should be able to be handled in sheep yards.
• Good drafting facilities so animals don’t have to be caught individually.
• Close-boarded sides in crush pen and drafting race with concrete floor.
• Road metal in other holding yards.
• Secure gates that swing and close without effort.
• No protrusions such as sprung rails, gate hinges, nails and heads of bolts.
• Dogs under total command, and a place to tie them up well away from yards when not in use.
• Lockable cupboard for animal remedies.
• Place to put scales in the race.
• Fully serviced first aid box.
  

Shelter/Shade & housing

• Goats are very different from sheep as they carry less fibre with less grease content, and they don’t have large fat reserves under their skin.
  
• Cold on its own is not the problem, for as ruminants they generate internal body heat from digestion; but a combination of cold and wet conditions can have drastic effects.
• Goats hate sudden rain or hail storms and they need shelter to protect them from these elements.
• A paddock with scrub or rushes provides ideal natural shelter, provided it also has enough good pasture to meet the stock’s needs.
• Artificial shelter can be made from hay bales, well-anchored corrugated iron either erected to stand straight or bent into a half circle, as well as scrim and shade cloth.
• There is also a wide range of specially made goat shelters available with no floors, solid floor or slats. They also vary in weight so some you can push around and others need an ATV or small tractor to shift. The lighter the shelter, the greater the risk of it being blown away.
• Slatted floor would be the best option to avoid fleece contamination but there’s always the risk of small kids getting their legs caught in them.
• Expect goats to climb on top of any structure in their paddock, so provide a safe surface for this. It’s a great play area of kids to play “king of the castle”.
• It’s worth considering putting a small goat shelter in a corner where four paddocks meet. This can act as the access between paddocks as well as a shelter and a means of holding some animals if needed.
• Shelter belts made up of narrow lines of tall trimmed trees are of little value as the lack of low cover in fact increases wind speed among the trees.
• So trying to grow good timber in narrow shelterbelts of well-pruned trees and protecting stock are not compatible. You need a mixture of tall and low trees to act as an effective windbreak.
• The area of least wind speed is twice the height of the shelterbelt out in the paddock where goat shelters should be placed and not at the base of the trees.
• In snowstorms narrow shelterbelt trees slow up the blowing snow to form a drift among the trees, and will bury any sheltering stock.
• Putting animals into a small plantation of trees with a good dry bed of accumulated needles is ideal. There is no browse in these woodlots so good feed must be provided, otherwise goats may eat too many needles, which can cause rumen compaction.
• Using forage trees such as willows, poplars and tree lucerne is a good idea, especially for browsing in droughts. These trees can be kept low by coppicing and the thicker stems can be used for firewood.
• Shade is now of increasing importance in New Zealand with high rates of radiation and sunburn on the noses and ears of white goats. Sheds and trees, which provide shelter in winter, can also provide shade in summer.
• When planning a shelter, use a figure of 0.9-1.0m2/goat as not all animals will use the facility at the same time.
• For a bedded yard where all goats are confined, use 1.7m2/goat.
  

Danger times for goats

Birth.

• The newborn kid has come from 27ºC into the cold world so is very prone to chilling. The low birth weight of Angora kids (around??kg) adds to their vulnerability, especially if they are born as multiples.
• So it’s essential that they get a good feed of colostrum immediately after birth. The doe normally hides her kids at birth so provision of shelter, natural or artificial is very important.
• Does that have just kidded, especially those with their first offspring may not take their newborns to shelter so vigilance is needed by those in charge.
• The doe and kid should be confined into a small sheltered space as often the doe may want to get back to her birth site attracted by the odour of the birth fluids and leave the kid behind.
  

Post shearing

• Newly shorn goats can very easily become chilled if hit by cold wet weather after shearing. It’s essential to have some shelter for them and plenty of good feed.
• They may need this special care for at least a couple of days and nights after being shorn.
  

Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Feeding

Farming, animal husbandry, goats, Angora, Mohair, feeding, nutrition, behaviour

By Dr Clive Dalton


Feeding
Feeding behaviour

• Goats don’t have a split upper lip like sheep so don’t graze as close to the ground.
• They are classical browsers and are used successfully by farmers to graze out weeds and avoid chemical sprays. Offering goats a wide choice of feed can cause problems as they may for example take a liking to feeds of low nutritional value when you want them to put on weight.
• They are effective ruminants relying completely on pasture by about 15 weeks of age when feral goats synchronise their grazing behaviour with their dam.
• Goats seem to be less concerned about eating prickly plants suggesting their lips are different to sheep.
• They eat a lot of roughage that includes weeds, woody shrubs, leaves and bark. They are well known for ring barking trees.
• They eat plants from tip down to base which explains why they are so good at killing gorse and thistles and stopping them seeding.
• Goats will stand on their hind legs to reach up high to browse and will use their front legs to hold branches down. They'll even climb trees to get at leaves. This has a major reason why they have been involved in turning farmland into deserts aided by humans.
• They do not relish clover so goat pastures end up being very clover dominant.
  

Nutrition

• The key principle of nutrition is that feed intake by the animal must meet its nutritional needs in terms of energy, protein, minerals and trace elements and vitamins.
• Water is important and although it’s not classed as a nutrient, it’s essential for body function. Water must come from a clean source and not from stagnant dams, swamps or dirty troughs.
• The animal’s feeding needs are divided into “Maintenance”, and “Production. Maintenance feed keeps body systems functioning when the animal is standing still in a warm temperature.
  
• Nutrients for Production are needed over and above Maintenance and are used for movement, grazing, bodyweight, fibre growth and reproduction. More nutrients are also needed if the animal is stressed by cold or disease.
• Goats have a greater level of voluntary feed intake that sheep relative to their metabolic body weight so when fed hay, goats ate more than sheep.
• As ruminants, goats can digest cellulose in plants more efficiently than by any other ruminant. Lignin is plant cellulose that normally cannot be digested.
• As well as feed intake, the digestibility of what they eat is important. Lush pasture is highly digestible but has low Dry Matter, and feeds high in plant fibre have low digestibility and high bulk. All these components have to be taken into account when working out feeding levels.
• In calculating feed requirements, an Angora or feral goat is taken as 0.7 stock units. A stock unit is the feed needed to maintain a 50kg ewe with a single lamb for a year.
• A goat equivalent is another measure used and is a 40kg goat. One goat equivalent equals 0.25 stock units. Note that these values are very crude measures but have been used for years to describe “carrying capacity” of farms.
• Kids are less efficient than calves or lambs when fed milk diets. Kids fed at the same concentration, goat milk, cow milk or milk replacer resulted in similar growth rates.
• Minerals, trace elements and vitamins are important but a balanced diet based on pasture should meet these needs.
  
• However as New Zealand soils are “recent’ in geological terms, mineral deficiencies such as copper, selenium and Iodine can occur. There are also situations where there can be too much, so for peace of mind consult your veterinarian to have blood and liver tests done on animals at critical times of year such as in mind pregnancy, as their body stores may need to be built up over time like charging a battery.
• With any ruminant, changes in diet should be made gradually to allow the rumen micro-organisms to adapt to any changes. Allow from 4-7 days for complete diet changes, and when starting off on concentrates, feed very small quantities(e.g. <40g/head/day).>

Feed intake
A goat doesn’t eat knowing its nutritional needs. Seeking out fibrous plants or salt may prove this statement wrong, but generally they are mainly interested in feeds that are palatable and to continue eating until they are satiated.

At certain times such as when they are suckling kids we want them to eat as much high quality digestible feed as possible and in winter when pregnant we provide feed for maintenance only so they may be hungry for parts of the day and be looking for a chance to escape to get more feed


Factors affecting feed intake are:

• Type and quality of feed. They will eat more high quality than low quality feed.
• Amount of feed on offer. If you see goats lying contented and cudding after grazing and clearly full, if you open the gate they will generally run to the new feed and start grazing again. Give them more and they will usually eat more.
• Frequency of feeding: If you offer feed many times a day in small amounts goats will eat more than if they are fed in fewer larger feeds. They also waste less when fed more frequently.
• Liveweight. Maintenance feeding needs is related to liveweight so bigger heavier animals will eat more than smaller animals.
• Stage of lactation: A milking animal milking has a high appetite to cope with the nutrient drain from its body.
• Pregnancy: In the last 2-3 weeks of pregnancy rapid foetal growth causes an increase in nutrient needs, but it’s at this time that appetite often drops. This is partly because the rumen is affected by the enlarged uterus and contents but there are also hormonal reasons involved in this appetite drop.
• Activity: It’s a rule of thumb that you should add 25% more to feed allowances for animals that have to graze actively.
  

Key times for good nutrition
Pre-mating

• It’s important to have does in good condition when the bucks are joined with them. It’s been a traditional practice with sheep to “flush” them for about three weeks before joining, and this practice has been applied to goats to ensure good fertility and twinning.
• It’s always difficult (if not impossible) in dry summers leading into autumn to build up quality green feed for mating, so a far better practice is to make sure your goats never get into a skinny state as good body weight is critical in stimulating cycling (as well as declining day length) to start cycling and stimulating good ovulation rates.
• Where good pasture feed is not available, then good quality silage or balage can be used and if finances allow, concentrate feeds at around 50g/goat/day.
• Concentrates should only be needed if goats were in low body condition. Hay has too low a feeding value for this and weeds won’t meet their needs either.
• Coming up to mating, goats should be in as good condition as possible. It’s hard to Condition Score goats compared to sheep, as goats don’t lay down fat as easily as sheep.
  
• This is especially the case with milking goats that always look thin. But skinny goats are very obvious, and healthy well fed goats should have some fat cover on them.
  

Liveweight
Liveweight has a very important impact on fertility as the following table for Angora goats shows;

Post-mating

• Good feeding should continue for at least 4-6 weeks after the bucks go out hoping that few animals return to oestrus.
• This is a very critical period for the implantation of the embryo and the establishment of the placenta which has been shown in sheep to be very important in embryo survival later in pregnancy and birth weight and hence survival.
• There’s no reason to assume that goats will be any different. Whether your feeding regime is working is best judged by liveweight and BCS.
  

Pre- and post-kidding

• These are very important times. In the last 2-3 weeks of gestation the foetus grows rapidly so needs extra nutrients to ensure it has a good birth weight which is critical in survival, but this coincides with a drop in appetite by the dam.
• Then after kidding there is a massive surge of nutrients into milk and this cannot be met from the doe’s feed intake. The doe is described as being in “negative nutritional balance” for at least the first six weeks after birth and it’s a time when feeding concentrates is most cost effective.
• Her needs are often described as 2.5 times Maintenance.
• You cannot overfeed milking does, and do everything possible to get them to eat more and keep on eating such as offering new grazing twice a day.
• Goats cannot be made to eat soiled pasture to graze it out like you can with sheep and cattle.
  
• Aim to feed pasture of 2500kg DM/ha (700mm high) made up of 70% green content. Don’t make them graze below 500-600mm high so they are getting the most palatable and digestible parts.
• Nibbling weeds won’t do any harm as long as it’s only the very tips which have good feeding value in spring.
• If does were not shorn before kidding, this massive nutritional stress on their system will cause thinning of the fibre, weakness and break.
  

Post-shearing

• Good feeding for at least the first 2-3 days after shearing is a good insurance against any losses due to stress if the weather is cold and wet.

Growing kids – weaners & yearlings

• There is plenty or research is all ruminants to show that feeding and hence growth in early life (pre and post weaning) will affect subsequent weight and production during the rest of the animal’s life. So it’s vital to keep young goats growing well.
• When using milk replacers, it’s never wise to use a cheap product. Feed the best quality product you can find and follow the instructions on the bag to the letter.
• There are plenty of figures for the feed needs of growing milking goats and an example is the table below showing the maximum Dry Matter intakes needed at different weights.
  

Weaning

• This is a critical time as from this time, young animals are “on their own” with no more milk supplementation so they should be eating well.
• Kids can be weaned from 5 weeks old but normally weaning is around 2 months of age. Weaning weight should be based on weight and not age.
• A guide is for weaning weight to be at least 3.5 times birth weight and eating concentrates (around 40g/head/day).
• Young goats after weaning need around 1kg of DM/day (pasture plus concentrates) to keep them growing to reach a good weight for mating.
  

Sheep Farm Husbandry - training sheep

Sheep, husbandry, behaviour, training a sheep, pet lamb, rearing & training

By Dr Clive Dalton


Training sheep
As discussed earlier, sheep can learn quickly and there are a few tricks you can use to teach them. One of these is to teach a sheep to be a leader ( a Judas) sheep which can be used to lead sheep through any unpopular or unfamiliar places like sheepyards and woolsheds, problem gateways, footbaths, ditches or swamps, onto and off trucks and into slaughter facilities.

In many parts of the world sheep follow the shepherd and are not driven by humans and dogs. This is the ideal system for small flocks in New Zealand as under-worked dogs cause more problem than they are worth. In no time a rattle of a bucket or tin with a few sheep nuts in is all that’s needed. Here are some tips developed by Kay Bremner at Ruakura Research Centre in the 1970s to use if you want to train a leader sheep:


Choosing a sheep to train

• A pet lamb is the best candidate and will shorten the training period by about a month compared to a flock sheep.
• Pet lambs are not so afraid of dogs or strange people, and are ideal if you want them to work along with dogs.
• Also pet lambs will try new feeds which you can use as rewards if they get tired of the main one you are using.
• But if a pet lamb is not available, any un-handled sheep will do.
• Any age of sheep will do but obviously avoid very young lambs that are not robust enough to open gates and very old sheep that may nearing the end of their days.
• Breed is not all that important but an active breed like a Perendale will get the job done quicker.
  

Step 1 - Initial training

• Start by frequently restraining the sheep in a narrow race.
• Then spend some time scratching them on the shoulder – a sheep loves this.
• After each scratch, hold your hand out to the sheep to let it sniff it.
• The sheep soon learns that sniffing your hand signals further scratching.
  

Step 2 - Go away

• Get the sheep to eat concentrate feed (sheep nuts) so it can be used as a reward for correct actions.
• Teach the sheep to come when called – using the feed.
• Teach it to follow on a lead – using the sheep nuts if needed.
• Then teach the sheep to move away from you using a command. Use a long race or small pen with the feed bucket at the far end.
• Lead the sheep to the bucket to smell the feed, then take it back and let it go to find the bucket. Repeat this exercise a few times with a simple command like “Go”.
• Increase the distance between the release point and the bucket.
  

Step 3 – Go around and come back

• If you want the sheep to come back on a complete circuit, you can extend the above training, so the sheep comes back to the bucket at the start.
• Don’t fill the start/end bucket until the sheep gets back to it or it won’t want to leave.
• Then introduce any diversions or challenges on the way around the circuit like flaps or doors or return races at meat works.
• Change the situation of the reward bucket at the end of the required route.
• Always put the bucket at the end of the required route and begin by teaching the last step first, then the second-to-last plus the last.
• Gradually add steps until the sheep has learned the complete task from first to last steps.
• Once the sheep is competent and confident at a given task, then use an intermittent reward system. This will establish a stronger behaviour pattern than rewards after every performance.
  

Step 4 –Final tuning

• Opening a flap. Start with the flap wide open and slowly close it so the sheep gets used to brushing through till it will put its nose into a very narrow gap and push it open. Use some sheep nuts to speed the learning.
• Lifting a lever. Hold a few sheep nuts below a lever or above a latch and moving your hand so the sheep, while getting the feed, learns the action required to activate the mechanism. It will soon learn to use its nose to get the result.
• Check that any flaps or gates you don’t want opened are firmly closed before you put the sheep to work!
  

Training a pet lamb
Encouraging children to rear a pet lamb and train it for competition is a very rewarding exercise, but you need to be aware of some of the issues before you agree to it. Here are some of them:

• What is going to happen to the lamb when the competition is over? Have you got a good farm home for it, and if you are going to slaughter it for meat, how is that going to be accepted by the carers? Many people swap their lambs with friends – you can eat a friend’s lamb with a clear conscience but not your own!
• What are you going to do if the lamb dies? It may be a child’s first experience of death which may be an opportunity or a trauma you may or may not wish to use for educational purposes. Below is how to make sure it stays alive and healthy.
• Get a good healthy lamb and make sure it has had its mother’s colostrum. If it has not, then don’t take it, as the chances are high that it may die at a few weeks old.
• Often if it’s an orphan it may be a small twin or triplet and may need extra care in its early days.
  
• Don’t overfeed it – and if anything, dilute the proprietary milk powders available rather than make them richer. Plenty of lambs have been reared on diluted cows milk and plenty killed by milk that is too rich.
• In the first few weeks feed it at least four times a day. Better to have many small feeds than fewer big ones. The more times it’s fed, the greater the opportunities for bonding with the owner.
• The lamb will start to nibble grass (and garden shrubs) from 2-3 weeks old. Provide plenty of grass and avoid the shrubs as they could be poisonous.
• Let the lamb’s owner feed it every time so it learns to come to their call. (Motivating the owner can often be a battle!). Let the lamb have to travel further away each time so it will run quickly to a voice call. (This is a major test in competition).
• Every time you pass the lamb between feeds, call it by name to get it to run to the owner in anticipation of a feed.
• Teach the lamb to lead from the first week and give it plenty of practice. (This is another main competition test). Teach it to stand still beside the owner too, as part of the leading exercise.
• Make sure the lamb gets all necessary vaccinations. Ask the farmer if the lamb’s mother will have had a 5-in-1 vaccination. If not the lamb will need vaccinating, so check with the vet.
• If you want to dock the lamb, do it very early or wait until the competitions are over.
• Make sure the handler knows the full details of the lamb – e.g. its breed, sex and age as the judge will ask them.

Have plenty of spare bottle teats on hand, and give them a regular tug before feeding the lamb to make sure they have not been bitten half through, or starting to perish. If a lamb swallows a teat, give it 10ml of liquid paraffin twice a day and hope nothing gets stuck!

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Sheep Farm Husbandry - Lambing behaviour

Sheep, husbandry, lambing, birth problems, ewe & lamb behaviour at birth, birth site, lamb stealing by ewes, normal birth signs, helping ewes to lamb, helping newborn to feed.

By Dr Clive Dalton

Ewe behaviour prior to lambing

• Ewes heavy in lamb and “on-the-drop” are very serene and slow up a lot in their movement around the paddock. Don’t hassle them. Always move them quietly.
• They also become more vigilant and graze less. This restlessness lasts until the ewe finally selects a birth site.
• Their appetite will drop because of lack of rumen capacity due to their massive uterus, especially those carrying multiples. But it’s not all an internal space problem as hormone changes are involved.
• Let them settle into the lambing paddock as they’ll want to find a quiet lambing site when contractions start.
• A few hours before lambing, a ewe will move away from the main flock to find a quiet birth site. These are special places and need to be recognised and respected by the shepherd.
• Some ewes have been seen to select a birth site up to a couple of days before lambing.
• Particular areas of lambing paddocks such as hollows or hill tops can be very popular spots, and many lamb mix-ups and mismothering happen here.
• It may be necessary to fence these areas off after a while when they get muddy. This will avoid a great deal of extra work and frustration for the shepherd.
  

The birth site
Shepherds from the dawn of time have known that ewes like to choose a quiet place to lamb. But it wasn’t until Dr Ron Kilgour started to knock a numbered peg in the ground where a ewe had chosen to lamb, that we began to realise how important the birth site was in maternal behaviour and hence lamb survival. This is what happens on the birth site:

• The ewe paws the ground.
• She keeps turning round and round.
• She lies down and gets up a lot.
• Her waters burst and she gets up to smell the ground where they fell.
• Then after labour contractions the lambs are born.
• The ewe then gets up and licks the lambs.
• A lamb may be finally delivered with the ewe standing licking another.
• The ewe produces the afterbirth.
• She will remain on the site till the lambs have suckled.

The key feature in the above list is the bursting of the ewe’s waters. We humans cannot see or smell this on the ground, but the ewe can, and they are a powerful anchor for her to stay on that spot.

• Ewes vary in the time they spend on the birth site.
• Experienced ewes will not move off the birth site until they are sure they’ve got things well under control. Some ewes with high maternal instincts and multiple births will spend a couple of days on or near their birth site until their little tribe is well bonded.
• Other confident ewes will move off as soon as the lambs have suckled and can move with her. These ewes with good maternal instincts and experience seem to be able to count, and will not leave their lambs behind – going back to gather up stray twins or triplets. They stand with head down giving a low bleat and constantly nuzzling the lambs in turn and keeping them together.
• Younger ewes with no previous experience will stay longer on the birth site, as they have the novelty of a lamb to deal with. If disturbed then these sheep panic more easily and take off leaving the lamb or lambs behind.
• It’s good practice to leave newly-lambed ewes alone on their birth site, and only move them after a couple of days when they have clearly bonded and moved off to another area of the paddock of their own accord.
• Shifting ewes or lambs in the middle of the birth process is a disaster, and will surely lead to mismothering of lambs and a massive amount of frustration and extra work, often late in the day for the shepherd.
• It’s a good idea to spot-mark multiples at birth and then leave them alone. This helps to ensure correct mothering later that same day or in the next three days.
  

Lamb stealing by ewe before birth - burglar ewes
Often a ewe that has not lambed will steal a lamb from a newly-lambed ewe. It seems that her maternal instincts have got out of phase.

• She can cause enormous disruption in a lambing paddock, as you often don’t know that she has not lambed until the day you find her with a lamb a few days old, and then a new one!
• The only cure (when you discover the trick) is to shut her out of the lambing paddock until she has lambed or if she is near lambing, assist her to lamb.
• Many shepherds have threatened to put burglar ewes in the killers’ paddock when discovered for all the disruption they have caused! What saves them is that they are exceptionally good mothers so their sins are forgiven.
  

Lamb stealing by ewe after birth
This happens regularly and studies have shown that even with close shepherding where ewes lamb fairly close together, you can expect from 6-18% errors in correct mothering-up of the lambs. This has serious implications when you need the correct pedigree of a lamb, that may for example become a future top widely-used sire.

Here’s what happened in a study at Ruakura Research Centre. The ewes were closely watched without disturbance for 24 hours (using torches during the night). A very experienced shepherd then went round in the morning and tagged the lambs according to what he reckoned were their correct mothers.

Key points from the table

• The lambs in brackets are the stolen ones.
• Theft was rife and the very experienced shepherd was duped!
• 236 ended up with a correct single and lost her other twin.
• 847 and 961 ended up with one correct lamb and a stranger.
• 611 kept out of trouble by only licking her own lambs.
• Amazingly, 169 ended up with her correct lambs after licking six others.
• Lamb “I” disappeared completely.
  

The normal birth
Fortunately nature has being delivering young animals with no human help for eons, and the great majority of farm animals give birth naturally with no problems.

• Once the birth process begins, it should be possible to keep a watchful eye on events without making the mother aware of your presence.
• Don’t interfere unless you are sure there’s a problem.
• The first signs of imminent birth in the ewe are a bulging udder and a swollen vulva.
  
• She stands apart as womb contractions begin, positioning the lamb for delivery.
• Fluid and the placenta appear at the vulva, and the placenta may bulge or hang from the vagina.
• Most farm mammals are born in a diving position - with the front legs fully extended so that their knees are alongside their muzzle, making a streamlined shape for ease of delivery.
• The two front feet of the lamb appear at the vulva first and behind them its nose.
• The ewe may lie or stand for a few more pushes, and then the lamb arrives on the ground, usually with a bump and shaking its head.
• As a general rule, once birth contractions begin, there is usually fairly rapid progress within 15 minutes.
• If the lamb is born in a place that is at all dusty or muddy, spray or paint its navel and cord with tincture of iodine (iodophor spray). Try to disturb the ewe as little as possible.
• It is wise to repeat the iodine treatment at 24-36 hours if conditions are particularly wet or muddy.
  

When things go wrong

• The birth can be complicated by the lamb becoming stuck in the birth canal.
• The chances of the birth process or mothering-up going wrong increase greatly if the ewe is disturbed unnecessarily, e.g. by people or other animals.
• If the ewe has been down straining or if the membranes or part of the lamb have been protruding from the vulva for 10 minutes or more and no progress is being made, then you need to be concerned.
• If she has been trying to lamb for nearly an hour, or you see a big head sticking out, then she needs assistance from someone with experience. If after inspection, you suspect major difficulties, then on a small farm near town it would pay to call your veterinarian for advice.
• If the lamb is in the wrong position in the vagina, e.g. if its head is twisted to one side or a leg is bent back – this will be trouble.
• Some skilled person with a small clean hand, should gently but firmly push the lamb back towards the womb, and straighten the limbs and body so that it is repositioned correctly.
• It can be very difficult to do the repositioning if the ewe is straining and if the birth canal is tight and dry - it helps to use lots of lubricant.
• Sometimes the hind feet come first, or there are twins alongside each other, and this can be very confusing.
• When the tail comes first and the hind legs are extended forward under the body, this is a breech birth. They can be very difficult to deal with and prompt experienced or veterinary attention is usually necessary to deliver the lamb with minimal traction.
  

Lamb behaviour after birth

• Sheep are classical “follower species” where the lamb follows the ewe most of the daylight hours, and this behaviour continues right up to weaning.
• The lamb will even follow any movement immediately it is on its feet after birth. A very young lamb will follow the shepherd, the dog or the bike, and this can lead to mismothering.
• Lambs learn to recognise their mothers by sight by about 3 days of age.
• Good lamb survival depends on the ewe licking the lamb and the lamb finding the teat immediately after birth.
• In high fertility sheep with multiple births, there is a greater chance of lambs failing to suckle in the first few hours after birth with consequent higher losses.
• Teat seeking behaviour is important. The lamb has got to be determined to get on its feet, start nuzzling the ewe to find an area of bare skin and find a teat to suck on.
• Some lambs find the skin under the front legs and waste time looking for a teat there, before moving to the rear end of the ewe.
• A good ewe will encourage the lamb to move to the rear by standing still and nuzzling its rump and anal area.
• Inexperienced young ewes will not stand still and they turn round to lick the lamb all the time. Lambs die of starvation often through this overzealous mothering.
• Once the lamb has found the teat it will stand with head down reaching below the ewe, pushing upwards and once on the teat, wagging its tail while suckling. But don’t assume that a lamb wagging its tail has always found the teat – the proof of that is if its under belly is rounded and full.
• Breeders once started to select sheep with four functional teats but this didn’t get very far unfortunately.
• First sound then sight soon reinforces the ewe/lamb bond that was built initially on smell. The ewe recognises the lamb’s bleat, and the lamb learns the ewe’s bleat. This is important as lambs get older and spend time away from the ewe for short periods, e.g. with other lambs.
• Lambs show great play behaviour especially approaching dusk when they race along fences and play “king of the castle”. They can often fall down holes and drown in water troughs doing this.
• When danger is seen, the ewe first calls the lamb then checks its approaching identity by sight.
  

Helping the newborn get its first feed

• After a normal delivery, it can be difficult to resist the temptation to help a struggling lamb to its feet and to help it suck.
• As a general rule, it’s best to let the ewe and her lamb work it out for themselves for at least 4 to 6 hours.
• If you don’t think the lamb has been able to find the teat within a couple of hours, then give it assistance, especially in bad weather.
• If you do help the lamb get its first feed, don’t hold its head. It will struggle against this. Support the hind end so that its head is free and in about the right position to find the teat.
  
• If this doesn’t work, sit the ewe on her rear end and stick the teat in the lamb’s mouth and squirt milk into it. If you are lucky it may start to suck in this unnatural position.
  

Disclaimer
This material is provided in good faith for information purposes only, and the author does not accept any liability to any person for actions taken as a result of the information or advice (or the use of such information or advice) provided in these pages.

Animal behaviour and welfare: General

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE BASICS: PART 1

Definitions: Concerns: Issues
By Clive Dalton

What is animal behaviour?

• Everybody is interested in animal behaviour is because of TV wildlife films.
  
• Animal behaviour studies what animals do, but also the how, why, where and when they do it.
  
• The "why" is probably the most important question as this is the information you need to solve problems. The fancy name for animal behaviour is animal ethology.
• Animal behaviour is very much bound up with "animal welfare" and we study behaviour problems to improve welfare.
  
• The behaviour of animals in practice is seen by humans as either:
• Appropriate or inappropriate
• Acceptable or unacceptable
• Normal or abnormal
  

But this depends on the circumstances so always look at the context - the big picture.

Why is animal behaviour important?

• Every animal production problem has a very large animal behaviour component, and behaviour problems have a large impact on animal production and hence profit.
  
• Animal behaviour has big implications for our export trading and animal welfare issues can be used as indirect tariffs against New Zealand.
  
• And always be aware of the effect humans and their behaviour has on animal behaviour and vice versa.

What is animal welfare?
Animal welfare is concerned with suffering and satisfaction during the animal's life. There are three reasons for concern about animal welfare:

• Respect for animals and sense of fair play.
• Poor welfare leading to poor product quality.
• Risk to markets where poor products leave a poor product image.
  

The four "I‘s" of animal suffering
There are four situations where humans are directly responsible for animal suffering -called the four "Is":

• Ignorance - not knowing what to do or claiming this in defence.
• Inexperience - knowing what to do, but not knowing how to do it.
• Incompetence - inability to do it.
• Inconsideration - not caring.
  

(From Gregory, N (1988). Animal Welfare and Meat Science, CAB 1998).

Who is concerned with animal behaviour and welfare?
This is an important question, as most people would reply to it by suggesting only farmers and veterinarians who make their livings from farm livestock are concerned.

But there are many more as shown in the list below - which is open for your further additions:
Veterinarians - they make their living from animals and their ethical code is to care for them under the law.

• Farmers - they make their living from them too, again under the law.
• Scientists - the study of ethology for academic and practical reasons.
• RSPCA - Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
• Government ministries - Agriculture, Environment and Forestry.
• ACVM - Agricultural Compounds & Veterinary Medicines Board.
• ILHP - International League for the Horse Protection.
• SAFE - Save Animals from Exploitation.
• ALF - Animal Liberation Front.
• Environmental Risk Management Agencies.
• DOC - Departments of Conservation.
• WSPA -World Society for Protection of Animals.
• Cat Protection League.
• Humane Society.
• PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
• The Cow Protection League.
• Greenpeace.
• Politicians - responding to constituents and developing and modifying the law.
• District and Regional Councils - mainly pest control.
• Antivivisectionists.
• Vegetarians and Vegans.
• Various religions.
• The general public - "Society"!
• The media - animal stories make good copy.
• THE ANIMAL itself! Note that it's usually the last to be remembered and needs to be the first entry on the list.
  

What issues concern the public or society in New Zealand?

• The "public" or "society" are very difficult describe, especially to farmers who get annoyed about too much interference in their business.
  
• But vague or not, the public and society have enormous power through their organisations and by simply refusing to buy animal products.

NZ Issues
The issues of concern vary depending a lot on what has just been aired in the media. Here are some that occur regularly:

• Direct cruelty and any flouting the law.
• Intensive or factory farming - especially of pigs, battery hens and broiler chickens.
• Extensive farming issues where lambs die in late snow storms.
• Hormones, growth stimulants and antibiotics fed to animals.
• Transport of animals, especially live exports of sheep.
• Rodeo and circus animals used in entertainment.
• Slaughter of livestock.
• Zoos
• Animals used in research and teaching.
  

What issues concern the public?

• It's interesting and important to be aware of these as UK is a major market for our animal products and any rules they set for themselves can easily be made mandatory for countries exporting to them.
  
• These issues inevitably play a major role in setting the standards of farm animal welfare:
• Declining profitability of livestock farming.
• EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform and world Free Trade agreements. Increasing bureaucracy in all countries.
• The power of retailers - e.g. large supermarket chains squeezing prices paid to farmers.
• Backyard farmers threatening good husbandry standards.
• Commodity versus niche producers.
• An ageing agricultural workforce and young people not going into farming.
• Growth of meat production in developing countries (with doubtful welfare standards) that could be imported into developed markets with high standards.
• The OIE (colloquially known as the World Organisation for Animal Health has become the de facto international reference organisation for animal protection and is developing a global framework of guidelines for animal welfare.
  
• The EU is currently pressing for animal welfare issues to be discussed in the current discussions in the WTO negotiations.

Topical issues include:

• Proposals for EU directives on broilers and laying hens.
• OIE guidelines for animal welfare.
• Council of Europe decree that farm animals are sentient beings.
• New animal welfare bills for Scotland, England and Wales.
• EU Action plan on animal welfare.
  

Current public interest issues
The public's interest in animal welfare issues has increased in recent years and shows no signs of abating.
Current drivers of this interest include:

• Active lobby groups on different issues.
• Increasing levels of disposable income in UK society.
• Growing awareness of animal welfare issues among some consumers.
• Remoteness of consumers from farming and food production.
• A perceived lack of public confidence in science.
• Interest among consumers (and producers) of getting welfare information on food labels.
  

What European consumers believe and want (2007)

• 67% believe the level of welfare protection of farm animals is poor or very poor.
• 78% believe more needs to be done to improve welfare.
• Chickens, laying hens, turkeys and pigs have the most public welfare concerns.
• 76% believe that food retailers don't provide enough information on welfare standards from which the products were sourced.
• 85% would like products to have better labels to denote the animal welfare conditions.
• 93% believed that imported foods should be produced under welfare conditions at least as high as in UK. (Big implications from NZ).
• 76% believed that better knowledge of farming practices could influence food purchasing decisions.
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: General

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE: PART 2

The 3 Rs; The 5 Freedoms: Law: Normal behaviour: Animal rights: Stress & distress
By Dr Clive Dalton

The three R's

• The history of animals used in research and teaching is littered with horror stories and images from the past, and this has led to a drive to reduce animal use - by what is called the three R‘s.
  
• They are Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. Research is now charged with a range of things to meet these three R‘s- for example:
• Using demonstrations instead of hands-on work with animals.
• Using models instead of real animal tissues.
• Using computer simulation.
• Using tissue culture.
• Using closed circuit television to show a procedure to more students.
  

The Animal Welfare Act 1999

• The updating of the Animal Welfare Act in 1999 gave a wider definition of "the animal" which now covers all vertebrates i.e. fish and the invertebrate crayfish.
  
• There was a big change in emphasis from "prosecution" to "education" and the word "cruelty" was removed and "distress' given emphasis.
• Codes of Recommendation and Minimum Standards" were produced to give the details relevant for each species of animal (e.g. cattle, sheep, bobby calves) and for painful manipulations (e.g. removing antler velvet from stags).
• A key factor in the Act was the emphasis given to the "five freedoms" which are now recognised internationally as the foundation of all animal welfare thinking. And the other big emphasis was to base the animal's needs on what was "good practice and scientific knowledge".
• Professor Brambell in UK in 1967 developed the five freedoms and you'll find them written in various orders in different publications. The order below is written to make them easier to remember by learning the code letters.
  

The five freedoms:

• 1. Freedom from hunger and thirst (HT)
• 2. Freedom from discomfort (D)
• 3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease (PID)
• 4. Freedom from fear and distress (FD)
• 5. Freedom to express "normal" behaviour (NB)
  

What is "normal" behaviour?

• This can be a very contentious issue and it's often easier to define what "abnormal" behaviour is. There's room for a lot of personal opinion both informed and not informed, and a great deal of anthropomorphism (see later).
  
• But there is no doubt that normal behaviour has got to be the baseline for decision making.
  

General needs for normal behaviour:

• Social contact
• Food and water
• Warmth
• Ventilation
• Space
• Opportunities to play
• Opportunity for courtship and mating
  

Speciesism

• This is a term coined by UK Animal Rights campaigner Richard Ryder and is a concept developed by Professor Peter Singer from Monash University in Victoria in his book "Animal Liberation".
• It is defined as "A prejudice or attitude of bias toward the interests of members of one's own species and against those members of other species". In practice it means you have to treat all animals using the same standards.
  
• The best example are animals classed as "vermin" as they must be given the same humane treatment (e.g. when exterminating them) as farm animals and pets.

Genetics and Environment - nature versus nurture

• When investigating an animal behaviour problem, you will regularly be faced with the question - is the problem caused by the animal's genetic makeup, the environment in which it was reared and managed, or a bit of both? Usually it's the latter - a bit of both.
  
• We know the effect of the environment (e.g. early socialisation, feeding etc) is massive on the final outcome, but recent work from twin studied shows just how strong genetics are.
  
• A good example is dog breeds selected for aggression - but are very friendly to their owners who swear they would never attack anyone! Their killer genes come out when their owners are not present and these dogs think that they or their territory are being threatened.
• Professor Gluckman in Auckland is leading a team studying EPIGENETICS where they have found that the many genes controlling a trait in humans like early growth and development, do not so much as determine what is expressed, as allow for a range of possibilities determined by the environment experienced.
  
• Because the environment is always changing, the hallmark of biological systems is their ability to cope with these changes.
• They do this by switches which can turn the genes finally expressed either ON or OFF depending on environmental factors with most influence during embryonic, foetal and early infant life by environmental factors such as maternal health, nutrition and stress. Epigenetics is studying how these switches work.
  

Anthropomorphism

• This is where you use human emotions and feelings to describe the behaviour of animals. Is it not a good thing if it ends up providing animals with what you think they would like if you were in their place?
  
• But it can be dangerous from a professional viewpoint and there is the risk of coming to a wrong conclusion over issues when being anthropomorphic and forgetting that animals are animals.
  
• Problems experienced by dog owners who forget that their dogs are dogs are a prime example. Both they and their dogs are confused!

Animals Rights - Do animals have rights?

• This is a common and valid quesiton.
  
• The moral position argues that animals have certain rights the same way humans have rights, and these must not be broken. The end result of this is that animals should never be exploited for human gain.
• Another view is that animals cannot claim the same rights as humans, but they have the right to be treated well by those who tend them. In practical terms they have the right to the Five Freedoms. You can see the dangers of getting anthropomorphic over this question.

Do animals have souls?

• You may also have to face the question.
  
• Your response will depend greatly on your religious views or lack of them.
  
• If you believe animals do have souls, you could then argue that they do have rights similar to humans.
  
• The great apes for example have recently experienced an enormous improved change in human attitudes to their rights, with DNA studies confirming their similarity to humans.
• So if they are that near to humans, do they have souls too?
• The animal cremation services get a lot of business from people who believe their pets have souls and deserves the same dignity that humans have a right to.
  

Stress and distress

• Some "stress" is valuable for good performance and survival, but too much turns into "distress" which has a bad effect on the animal.
  
• Behaviourists don't like the word stress and prefer distress. This is probably a bit academic but it's due to concern over definitions.
  
• From a practical point of view what stress does is to increase the "arousal" of the animal. Again some stress is good (e.g. to move stock) and some is bad (e.g. when they panic and bolt).

Arousal - things that increase it

• Isolation from mates or members of same species.
• Separation from owner.
• Decrease personal space.
• Lack of food and water.
• No shade or shelter.
• Novelty - something strange in the environment.
• Threats - something seen as a threat (eg human and animal).
• Aversive things - eg electric shocks.
• Noise - high pitched.
• High light intensity - especially poultry.
• Increased cold - especially pigs.
  

Arousal - things that decrease it?

• Provide company.
• Increase personal space.
• Provide plenty of food and water.
• A warm well-ventilated environment.
• Provide shade and shelter.
• Low frequently sound.
• Talk to the animals - in low tones.
• Low light levels.
• Change colour of light.
• Remove aversions and perceived threats.
  

Signs of fear in animals

• Vigorous tail flicking
  
• Spasmodic body shivering
• Head shaking
• Eyelid flickering
• Salivating
• Head retraction
• Diarrhoea/urinating
  
• Eye closure
• Nostril flaring
  
• White's of eyes showing
  

Cost of excess arousal - stress
This is what can result from unduly stressing animals:

• Poor stock performance.
• Increased ACC levies.
• Greater disease incidence.
• Deaths and family trauma.
• Accidents to staff - major and minor.
• Damage to property.
• Staff time off work and cost of replacement.
• Risk of fines from OSH
  

Social organisation in animals
Understanding the social behavior of animals is vital in problem solving. Here are some general principles - too often taken for granted:

• Animals are social creatures - they enjoy and may crave for the company of their own kind.
• Group living has big advantages for the animal:
• It allows protection against predators - allows group defence
• Provides cooperation in food gathering.
• Mates are easier to find.
• Allows synchrony of mating, birth and rearing of offspring.
• Solitary living has advantages when food is very scarce.
• Animals have rules - they help survival and peace in the group.
• Humans need to remember this! They cause the problem by confusing the rules.
• Animals need space - their own private space.
• They need mental stimulation - and the group provides this.
• They like predictability - but sometimes they thrive on unpredictability (eg the chance of a fight for the top position).
• At certain times of the year males are solitary.
• When males are reared or farmed in groups they can be homosexual and may need to learn to live and mate with females.

Hierarchies

• Animals organise their social behaviour into hierarchies.
• We talk about the "peck order" in birds, the "bunt order" in cattle, because this is the way they sort themselves out.
• These hierarchies can be stable or they can be fluid - depending on a whole lot of things:
• Food supply - if plenty of food, there's no need to fight.
• Size - a good big 'un will always beat a good little 'un.
• Sexual prowess - testosterone is a guaranteed winner.
• Cunning - the young males who fools the old male.
• Ego - my harem's bigger than yours.
• Top of the hierarchy is an alpha male who at least thinks he's the boss.
• In many cases an alpha female below him is the real boss - but she lets him act as if he was the leader.
• The alpha female has enormous power (especially over the young males) and will fight hard to keep her status.
• It's in the interest of the alpha male to make sure she keeps her job, so he will keep his too.
• His worry is when she takes a dislike to him and sees a better prospect.
• There is a constant state of young males looking for the inside chance to be alpha male.
• Fights that cause injury or death are against the survival of the group and are generally avoided. But when the issue is really important with genetic and survival implications - fights to the death if necessary will take place.
  

Are animals intelligent?

• This is another question behaviourists dislike as answering it risks anthropomorphism. "Can animals learn" is a lot safer question and the answer is clearly YES. So this leads on to the question of "does an ability to learn prove intelligence"?
• Animals certainly remember and we get into a lot of trouble by forgetting this fact. They remember their first experience very well so it's a good idea to ensure this is not a big negative one.
  
• Remembering is a survival trait for example where animals eat poison once and remember being ill. They are never keen to repeat the event and become "bait shy".
• Professor Brambell argued that "play" is a good guide to the general intelligence level of a species.
  

Can animals think?

• Animals cannot think in abstract terms - they cannot ponder the past or make plans for the future.
  
• If you see them appearing to think, it's more likely to be an "innate" behaviour than the result of logical decision-making. Animals have no notion or morality or right or wrong.
  
• They cannot understand the notion of a "rule". They can be taught rules by the techniques below.

Animal behaviour and welfare: General

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE: PART 3

Learning: Teaching: Pain & suffering: Problem analysis: Human-animal relations

By Dr Clive Dalton

Learning and teaching
There's plenty of evidence that animals can learn from simple to complex routines and it's clearly easier for them to learn things related to the innate behaviour of their species.

When we want to teach animals routines or change their behaviour, then a number of standard methods can be used:

• Classical conditioning by repeat presentation of a "conditioned stimulus" with an "unconditioned stimulus".
• Operant or instrumental conditioning by offering constant reinforcing stimuli with a reward.
  
• Habituation by learning not to respond to repeated stimuli. There is lack of reinforcement following the response, e.g. so the animal will eventually ignore the stimulus.
• Latent learning by using curiosity and exploration. It's learning without a clear reward. The learned behaviour is not expressed but lies latent.
• Insight learning by the animal seeing a solution immediately. For example the chimp that got the bananas by using a short stick to reach long stick to reach the banana.
• Imprinting. The classical work here is Lorenz and his geese. Birds follow the first thing they see after hatching and it was Lorenz on whom they were imprinted for the rest of their lives
  

More comment - Classical Conditioning (CC)
This is one of the main ways we teach animals, and it's the basis of a lot of animal retraining or correction. It was made famous by Pavlov and his dog experiments. Here is what he did:

• Dogs salivate when they see food and it's an easy visual response which is an innate behaviour of dogs.
• Pavlov rang a bell when the dog was fed.
• Eventually the dog would salivate for the bell anticipating the arrival of food.
• When not fed, the dog eventually stopped salivating for the bell.
• This is called "extinction" of a learned response.
• Fed again with the bell and the stimulus was reversed back to the food.
  

• A period of "association" is built between the two stimuli (old and new) for long enough so the new one becomes learned and appears to be instinctive.
• Before the animal shows an extinction behaviour, it may increase it's response to test if it will be rewarded before giving up. This is called an "extinction burst" and can be serious, e.g. cat pushing ornaments off to get attention.
• Many classical conditioning responses are complex and hence difficult to solve. This is where there is more than one stimulus involved - some of which you may not be aware of.
• In academic terms CC uses the relationship between a "response" and a "conditioned stimulus" (CS).
• The response works because it is caused by an "unconditioned stimulus" (UCS) - such as something that is innate.
• You then use the CS to trigger the UCS.
• A very important point is that you do NOT use "rewards" given by the handler to get a response.
  

More comment - Operant Conditioning (OC)

• This was made famous by a researcher called Skinner who used the "Skinner box" where rats were trained by a mild electric shock. When they failed to respond they got a shock and when successful they got a feed.
  
• Electric shocks were not essential which he demonstrated in other experiments with pigeons. When faced with two choices they got grain for a positive response and no grain for a negative one.
• Many other experiments have been carried out with poultry to select different kinds of cage environments and with large farm animals where they have been trained to press nose pads to make choices between feeds.
• Note that Operant Conditioning works using rewards. These can range from food, fussing, patting, play, voice tone, access to favourite areas, being allowed to explore or mix with mates, and many more.
• Rewards must be given at the same time as the response to be learned or within seconds afterwards. Similarly reprimands must be instant, and preferably not associated by the animal to the owner.
• Only when the response is well learned can the frequency of rewards be gradually reduced. You need to keep an occasional reward going to maintain anticipation and interest.
• A good example of this is the use of a "clicker" for training animals. The animal is trained with food rewards along with a click, and then the click on it's own will get the response. The association between food and click can be reinforced at required intervals if the response drops off. Clicker training is used for dogs and horses.
  

Pain and suffering

• This is a very important area of animal behaviour and welfare and has huge legal implications when prosecutions have to be made under the law. For further information see the MAF Code of Welfare No. 17. Care and use of animals for scientific purposes - p. 38.
  

Fears and phobias

Some fears are essential for survival but when extreme become phobias. When threatened mammals have four major defence responses:

• Flight - withdraw from the threat.
• Immobility - crouch and lies still to avoid detection.
• Deflection/appeasement - actively submit to the attacker.
• Fight - defensive aggression to attacker Some phobias seem to be partly caused by innate sensitivity e.g. animals with snakes. But many phobias contain a learned component. It can be a "conditioned reaction" to a fearful experience.
• Phobias cannot be cured by repeated exposure to the full stimulus. They can however be "unlearned" by "systematic desensitisation using very mild exposures to the cause so as not to create anxiety. This is gradually increased until the full stimulus can be accepted.

Growth and Development

• Growth, development and age have an important effect on animal behaviour and welfare so it's important to realise how animals grow.
  
• Growth takes the form of an S-shaped curve starting at conception, moving slowly to birth and then rapidly up through puberty to slow down at maturity.
• After conception the brain and central nervous system (CNS) have first call on nutrients provided by the mother. In the last weeks of pregnancy the foetus increases in weight.
• From birth through puberty to maturity tissues grow in order of bone, muscle then finally fat. But this can vary with feed supply as fat can be laid down in young animals if fed on a very high plane of nutrition. During this growth body proportions change.
  

Birth
This is a critical phase and can be traumatic for both dam and offspring.

Dam problems

• Paralysis
• Retained foetal membranes (RFM)
• Delayed return to normal breeding - anoestrus
• Bonding
• Uterine infections
• Teat and udder problems
  

Offspring problems:

• Hypothermia (37C drop to zero)
• Exposure/Starvation
• Dystocia
• Teat seeking problems
• Bonding
• Mismothering and neglect
  

Puberty

• This is the age of sexual maturity and when sexual behaviour starts.
  
• The animal has innate mating instincts but it still has to learn and practice to be effective.
• Puberty is dictated more by live weight than age.
• Genetics are involved as animals have been selected by farmers for early or late sexual maturity.
• Territorial issues start to be seen.
• Hierarchy issues start to apply.
  

Maturity

• Here animals reach mature weight expressing their genetic potential.
• If of large size and weight, this may pose mating problems.
• There are many diseases of old age:
• Arthritis
• Cancer
• Kidney failure
• Feet
• Teeth
• Obesity
• Failing sight
• Low appetite
• Low libido and mating problems
• There are people problems, e.g. aging pets, death and dignified disposal.
• There are marketing issues, e.g. deciding on slaughter weights to fit market needs.

Analysing a behaviour problem

• When faced with an animal behaviour "problem", there are many aspects to be examined before a conclusion can be drawn and a solution formulated. Here are some things that must be done first:
• Interview the person who has the "animal problem" and take detailed notes. Listen to what they see as the problem. List what they have tried, how they did it and what happened.
• Was the problem obvious?
• Did it appear to be simple or complex? Observe the situation in detail with an open mind.
  
• Make detailed record or what the animal does and what happens in the environment. This is called an "ethogram".
• Form a hypothesis - what you think is the problem, and then try to test this to confirm that your conclusions were correct.

Check list
The human (companion animal owner)

• What basic knowledge do they have about the animal?
• What is their age and how active are they?
• Their sex?
• Marital status – its stability and length of relationship?
• The people in the client's hierarchy?
• Has this changed recently?
• Who in the household has most interaction with the animal?
• Is this the truth – e.g. Is someone else quietly feeding it?
• Children - the number, their ages and sex?
• How do these kids get on with each other? Is there an aggressive hierarchy among the kids?
• House - the size and the area the animal may be allowed in and who sets these rules?
• Garden - the size and how important it is to the owner, and any restrictions for the animal?
• The general "lifestyle" of the family and the part the animal plays in this?
  

The human (farm animal owner)

• Who is “the farmer”?
• Who says they are the farmer but who is making the decisions?
• Their sex? e.g. Is it Mum or Dad, or the sons/daughters who are in control of stock management?
• What is the general attitude to animals on the farm?
• What is the state of the property e.g. general tidiness?
• What is the current feed status and are there any feed reserves?
• Are there plans for an emergency e.g. Floods or snow storms?
• What is the economic status of the business?
• What’s the owner’s attitude to “regulations and authorities”?
• What’s their attitude to their veterinarian?
• How stressed does the owner(s) appear?
• How well cared for are the family pets?
  

The animal

• What species - keeping in mind species-specific behaviour and innate ability.
• Breed - its importance in size, tractability and living space needed.
• Age - young an active or geriatric and sedentary.
• Sex- entire or desexed and at what age was it done?
• Hierarchy - where does the animal appear to fit in the family, flock or herd?
• Diet- what is the diet or feed supply and have there been changes?
• Are there sources of feed for emergencies?
• Exercise - how much exercise is allowed?
• Territory- what is the size of the "home range"?
• What information do you need to collect to solve the problem? (An ethogram)
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: Cats Part 1

CAT BEHAVIOUR BASICS: PART 1

Origins: Domestication: Social structure: Territory

By Dr Clive Dalton

Origins

• Ancestors of domestic cats started to live alongside humans as early as 130,000 years ago attracted by vermin and discarded food scraps.
  
• Then when man changed from hunter-gatherer to village resident, the cat became domesticated. DNA evidence now shows cats can be traced to the Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf (the Fertile Crescent) to five female ancestors. These “founding felines” came from a wild cat Felis libyca, still found in remote deserts of the Middle East.
• There are records of domesticated cats in ancient Egypt about 3500 years ago, where the cat was hunted for food and skins, and then encouraged to enter the human family for these reasons.
• It fitted easily into the human family hierarchy.
• It then developed religious significance in human society.
• Cats are very reward-seeking which always appealed to humans as well as their aloofness.
  
• Pest control was also a major reason for man keeping cats.
  

Modern cats

• There's a vast range of breeds, and there are breeders increasing new genetic types all the time as there is big money in being the exclusive owner of a new type of cat.
• We refer to "domesticated cats" or those that live in close association with man.
• Then there are "farm cats" that are domesticated but not keen on close human contact.
• "Feral cats" are those that have escaped from domestication and are fearful of human contact.
  

Social structure

• Cats are "reward-seeking" animals and this helps in developing a social hierarchy.
• Cats generally have a loose hierarchy - not as structured as dogs.
• They time share areas in their territory.
• Generally entire males are most dominant, followed by entire females, then spayed females and neutered males.
• Most wild cats live solitary lives, but they can also live happily as part of a group.
• Most domestic cats do the same but they have bonded owners to live with.
• The "mother-kitten" relationship is the basis of group development. The female kittens stay on with mum while the males leave to set up territories and go solitary.
• Some males are happy to stay in a single family group or they may move between groups.
• A social group of females allows for synchrony of oestrus and mutual care including cross suckling of kittens.
• Social structure becomes more defined and competitive when food is scarce, or where there is a limited amount of shelter.
• Remember there is a lot of individual variation between cats due to genetics and early environment.
  

Cats and territory

• Cats are territorial predators, which has important implications for modern humans.
• They have a home range that they routinely check out daily to hunt and explore.
  
• Home ranges of cats can overlap resulting in conflict and savage fights.
• Tom cats have large territories that can cover around 1 km in all directions for their den (home). But this depends on other Toms in the area and where there are few, a Tom may extend his territory to much greater size.
• Male cats know when they are not welcome in a strange area - note their stealth when they visit your property during a mating season.
• In their home range they have all they need - food source, shelter, social contact, urination and defaecation areas.
• They scent mark their range by clawing objects and spray urinating, and will protect it against intruders.
• Once established - this marking routine may provide an expression of security (marking in the house).
• Spraying. Urine contains glandular secretions so spraying is like leaving their CV around. It denoted gender, age, hormonal state and general health.
• Middening. Cats normally bury their faeces but they sometimes deliberately leave them on the surface to add scent to their territory, especially if they sense a challenge.
• Clawing. This is used as a visual sign but also leaves odours from the glands from the pedal (foot) glands.
• Nose rubbing. Cats rub their cheeks on twigs (and their owners) to leave odours from their cheek glands.
• Hunting the territory occurs mainly at dawn and dusk - they tend to be active only in short bursts. Cats are incapable of sustained effort.
• Cats are excellent climbers, and can handle falling in emergencies. They can swim when forced to, but it's not a preferred mode of transport.
• Territory becomes a problem in cages but cats can survive together, even including Toms. But it needs skilled observation.
  
• They can act in an "indifferent" mode to each other, as long as they have enough personal space above ground. The floor is used on a time-share basis.
  

Animal behaviour and welfare: Cats Part 2

CAT BEHAVIOUR BASICS: PART 2

Cat’s senses: Communication: Social behaviour

By Dr Clive Dalton











Vision

• Kittens are born nearly blind and their eyes open at 7-10 days old (range from 2-16 days).
• So touch and physical contact are very important to cats. This has big implications for humans and is widely exploited to the benefit of both cat and owner.
• Cats can see colour but with limited perception. They have better colour vision than dogs.
• Cats are creatures of the night and see well in poor light due to the structure of the eye. They can dilate their large pupils.
• Each eye has 150-205 degrees peripheral vision, with 90-130 degrees overlap for binocular vision. So they have a total visual field of 250-280 degrees.
  
• Cats cannot focus closer than 75mm - but at that close distance when hunting they use other senses. Their best vision is around 2-6m
  

Hearing

• Kittens are born with poor hearing and start to become normal by 3 weeks.
• Cat hears sounds up to 50-85kHz - human upper limit is 18-20 kHz. So they hear about four times better than humans and in the ultrasonic range that we cannot hear.
• Cats can also hear higher sounds than dogs.
• Their hearing range is very wide - over 10.5 octaves.
• Cats have mobile ears allowing rapid response to locate the source of the sound.
• They can interpret different wave patterns hitting each ear.
• The ear structure is a important in aiding balance when falling
  

Smell

• Cats have a very well developed olfactory system - 1000 times better than humans.
• Smell is very important in communication.
• Cats recognise the general smell of their home environment and are sensitive to any small changes.
  
• It's important to get the cat used to anything new in the environment as soon as possible - e.g. a new cat or baby.
• Cats have a Vomeronasal organ (VNO) on the hard palate which they can use to sense chemicals in aromas. They then show a Flehmen response, baring their teeth and giving a quiet hissing sound - called the "gape response" like the Flehmen in large animals. You see it when they sniff catnip.
• Smell governs what a cat will eat so they should avoid blocked noses.
• A cat's sense of smell is much more developed than in humans.
  
• They can detect small changes in food and you see this if you change a brand of cat meat. They will almost starve before they'll eat the new brand.
• Newborn kittens have an acute sense of smell to help them locate teats
  

Taste

• Cats show little response to sweet things but can detect salt, sour and bitter.
• They are very sensitive to the taste of water which explain their bizarre behaviour of sometimes drinking from muddy pools and fish tanks.
• Taste is less important than smell - smell is everything to a cat.
• Cats don't taste when hunting prey, only when sink their teeth in after capture.
  

Touch (Kinaesthetics)

• The cat's whole body is very sensitive to touch.
• The long outer guard hairs of the coat are especially sensitive.
• Hair movement provides information for the cat in its environment, e.g. wind direction to approach prey.
• Receptors also are concentrated in the feet pads.
• Cats are not very sensitive to heat - can stand up to 52C, e.g. lying beside fire.
• They can detect changes of 0.5°C via their noses which they use in hunting.
• Cats have very mobile whiskers used for sensing. Whiskers are forward when walking or hunting and back when greeting or sniffing.
  

Memory and learning

• Cats can show some ability to reason and work things out - but it is limited, so make sure you have not been anthropomorphic in drawing conclusions.
• The can understand cause and effect - if the interval between each is short.
• The have a fair degree of memory retention if reinforced by repeated attempts.
• Examples are cats that learn to jump up and turn door knobs or work cat doors.
• Cats can learn from copying other cats. Kittens learn a wide range of behaviours from their mother, or mothers reinforce inherent behaviours.
• More people are now training cats to do tricks, apart from the basic needs of house training, and stopping them scratching furniture.
  

Communication - sound

• Cats being very social animals have a well developed communication skills.
• They have learned to vocalise a special range of sounds for humans - cats don't mew to other cats.
• Sixteen different sounds have been recognised that are audible to humans. There are also many which are not audible to us.

Pure calls

• Murmur
• Growl
• Squeak
• Hiss
• Spit
• Teeth chatter
• 
  

Complex calls

• Mew
• Moan
• Meow
  

• There is also a wide range of tones and meanings - most common are growl/hiss/yowl.
• Purring is most commonly known to humans as the sign of a happy cat and is a very typical greeting call. It was a long time before researchers found how the cat did it.
• It's caused by rapid contraction of muscles in the larynx when the cat is contented or happy. A cat can sometimes purr when stressed. Purring is used when a mother nurses kittens as a contentment reassuring sound.
• The meow has a wide range of tones and it's often easy for owners to interpret some of these sounds.
• Oestrus howling has an important courting function, not appreciated by humans or their neighbours during the night!
  

Communication - body language
Cats use a large amount of non-verbal communication such as:

• Body postures
• Facial expressions
• Eyes, ears, mouth, tail and coat.
• They have developed a range of body signals for humans and other cats.
• "Friendly and relaxed" - the tail is held out behind or erect and curled slightly forward. The cat will rub itself against things and rub its muzzle on you to transfer scent.
• "Passive" - it sits crouched, tail and head down and avoids direct gaze.
• "In conflict" - the entire tail twitches or just the end. It is done in association with other signs.
• "Offensive threat" - the cat gives you a direct stare and its body is poised for attack. The cat approaches an enemy with sideways motion and prancing steps. This makes the cat look bigger to the enemy.
• "Defensive threat" - the back is arched, body fur fluffed up and tail up straight. The chin is drawn in to protect the throat. One paw is raised ready to lash out.
• With the eyes, narrow eyes show friendship with the stare being a definite threat.
  
• When the cat turns away from you it can be a sign of disdain or that the relationship in from the cat's viewpoint is OK. If a cat jumps up on you this is also a sign that the cat does not see you as a threat.
  

Communication - pheromones

• These are very important in cat communication.
• They are spread around in urine marks, faeces, scratch marks from feet and cheek glands.
• They make these marks where they are easy for other cats to find.
• The higher they scratch the more powerful impression they leave.
  

Balance and activity

• In the first couple of weeks after birth kittens crawl with sideways movements of the head like pups seeking warmth and teats.
• It is 7 weeks before they can thermoregulate (control their heat) themselves as they need Mum's heat up to then.
• By week 2 they can raise their front end.
• By day 17 they can stand and do an awkward walk.
• By 6 weeks they can right themselves if they fall over.
• Cats show this amazing "righting reflex" when falling as they land on their feet. This is a function of the inner ear, a large cerebellum and the spinal cord.
• Kittens are notoriously active and need to be encouraged to play in their socialisation and development.
• Mature cats reduce activity and spend more than 65% sleeping.
  
• Tom cats during the mating season are very active traveling long distances checking out their territory.
  

Play

• Play is an essential part of normal behaviour in the cat.
• It starts early as soon as kittens are mobile when they spend long periods interacting.
• Play teaches the kitten all the movements needed to survive and reproduce as an adult.
• Kittens reared in a litter are usually better-adjusted adults than single-reared kittens who only have their parents to play with.
• As an individual in a litter, there's a much great chance to learn to prepare and defend yourself against surprise attack, than as a singleton.
• A wide range of play moves have been identified:
• Scoop, Toss, Grasp,Poke-Bat, Bite-Mouth, Belly up, Stand up, Vertical stand, Pounce, Chase, Side step, Horizontal leap, Face off
  

Grooming

• This is a big feature of cats and occupies 30-50% of a cat's waking time.
• It also creates problems - fur ball.

Purpose of grooming:

• Maintains health of the skin and coat.
• Cools the body by evaporation of saliva.
• Controls parasites.
• "Displacement grooming" is a response to conflict, environmental stress or frustration. It's thought to be a response to reduce anxiety.
• "Mutual grooming" is used for social interaction and to show a relaxed state with other cats. Developed from maternal grooming.
• "Over grooming" - a problem sometimes started by itchy skin. It can develop into a serious obsession where cats become "closet lickers" and are hard to catch at it and stop.
  

Socialisation

• Kittens must be socialised early at between 2-6 weeks. This is a much shorter time span than in dogs.
• If they can be handled before their eyes are open, that's all the better.
• If kittens are not socialised before weaning (6weeks) then you'll have problems and it will take time to tame them.
• Kitten Kindy. This is a new approach by veterinarians to teach people how to socialise their kittens.
• At 2-9 weeks provide human contact and handling.
• As often as possible before 12 weeks handle kittens and routinely restrain them.
• 7-12 weeks - provide social play.
• After 14 weeks teach them fearful play, and learn to play fight.
• Be careful with this "play fight" activity as it can teach them to be over aggressive.
• Check the "Scruff test" where you hold the kitten by the scruff of its neck. If they allow this and don't fight of struggle, then they are probably OK.
  

Nutrition and feeding

• Cats are mainly carnivores, but modern cat foods contain some cereals to provide carbohydrates.
• Cats eat both day and night whereas dogs only feed during the day.
• They are very fussy about what they eat due to their acute sense of smell, and once settled on a brand of cat food they often don't appreciate changes.
• In the wild they would probably eat every second day after a hunt.
• The principles of nutrition are simple - the cat's nutrient intake should meet its needs. So growing, pregnant and lactating cats will need a much higher plane of nutrition than the family cat that sleeps most of the time.
• Overfeeding leads to obesity and health problems.
• The modern domestic cat is regularly overfed. Owners who go out to work leave an ad lib feeder full of biscuits, or tinned meat in a dish far in excess of what the cat needs. Unless owners see feed left, they think the cat will be hungry and hence starve!
• Owners need to discuss feeding their cat with a veterinarian so that it receives a correctly balanced diet which meets its needs - not its wants.
  

Reproduction

• Cats are seasonal breeders and the start of oestrus is stimulated by increasing daylight. They need 12-14 hours of light to get going.
• So the breeding season gets into full swing in spring.
  
• Toms also are seasonally active but stud Toms will mate any time. Their maximum fertility is in spring.
• Puberty is around 9 months but some breeds will start at 4 months.
• Cats can be desexed at 6 months old.
• Non pregnant females cycle every18-24 days.
• Heat periods last 4 hours if mated and 5-10 days if not.
• Ovulation is induced by copulation and it happens 27 hours after copulation.
• If they don't conceive after mating they will often have a pseudo pregnancy and won't start cycling again for 36 days.
• Cats have litters usually averaging around 4-5 kittens.
• Kittens are born blind and with very poor hearing like pups.
• Eyes open around 2-3 weeks.
• The cat mating ritual is very defined with mock fighting, body contact, and rapid and repeated coitus. It's a very noisy affair that can go on all day.
  

Desexing (neutering)

• Castration of males and spaying females prevents reproduction and all the associated behaviours.
• Spraying and fighting may still continue, but this may be brought about by special environmental factors. It may be done away from home range.
• The timing of desexing is important - get it done early before 6 months?
• It is claimed that no other cat behaviours are affected.