Does balancing for color affect pigs' preference for different flavored tail-models?

Jankevicius, M. L.; Widowski, T. M.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2003.08.002

In previous work using rope flavored with various solutions as a model to study tail biting, pigs generally show a preference for the blood-flavored models compared to untreated models or models soaked in NaCl solutions or different fractions of blood. However, in these studies tail models were not balanced for colour and it is unclear what stimuli may be serving to attract pigs to blood. In this study, pigs' preference for different flavored tail-models balanced for colour was determined.