FEEDING BEHAVIOR OF NEWBORN FOALS IN THE CONDITIONS OF YEAR-ROUND MARES’ GRAZING IN THE REPUBLIC OF KHAKASSIA
The study deals with the data of feeding behavior of new- born foals in the conditions of mares’ year-round grazing keeping in the Republic of Khakassia. The efficiency of etho- logical reactions in mares and the formation of food reflexes in newborn foals are largely determined by typological fea- tures of horses’ behavior. Ethological foals’ activity from Khakass aboriginal mares was investigated by timing method from the second day after the birth of three foals each geno- type for three next days by the method of quantitative evalua- tion of ethological characteristics. The purpose of the re- search was studying feeding behavior of newborn foals in theconditions of year-round pasture keeping of Khakass native mares. The study shows that foals from native Khakass mares and stallions of Russian heavy-lift truck grew and de- veloped more actively due to their mothers’ higher milk productivity. At the same time, the time spent on receiving milk from the foals of purebred Khakass parents did not affect their condition, but also was a specific indicator of higher nutritional activity and vitality of these animals. When studying the behavior of foals at the age of 2-4 days, it was found out that the young from mares of the first group spent 2 hours 4 minutes a day sucking milk, and foals from mothers of the second and third groups, respectively, 9.7 % less and 14.3 % more. The foals from mares of the first group on the move- ment and standing had less time expense, than the animals of the second, 10.1 %, and 1.7 % more in comparison with the third group. The total time of active state in foals born from mares of the first group was 12 hours 28 minutes, the second - 13 hours 25 minutes, and the foals from mares of the third group - 12 hours 45 minutes. Consequently, foals whose mothers were the mares of the second group, alt- hough spent less time sucking were totally active as they had lasted longer than their peers’ mares from other groups.