Problem Behaviour

The most common problems that are encountered in the handling and feeding of animals are usually as follows:

• Breaking out of confinement and straying.
• Breaking equipment, facilities and infrastructure.
• Refusing to enter buildings / facilities / cages / transportation / confined areas etc.
• Struggling during handling.
• Threatening and / or attacking humans or other animals.
• Self-mutilation (hurting /harming themselves)
• Accidental injury to the animals themselves.
• Injury due to competition and pecking-order fights.
• Abnormal defensive behaviour as a result of some disease such as rabies or mad cow disease.
• Attacking people or animals in the vicinity. A good example of a type of animal/insect attacking people or animals is honeybees. When the people working with the bees wear protective gear then the bees may attack people in the vicinity not wearing protective gear.

It is always better to feed animals separately in pens or feed animals of the same age and size together. Where it is not practical then you must make sure that there is enough trough space and ration so that there will be limited competition among the animals.