[Body temperature during fasting in chickens of various ages and body weight]

Chickens of different ages will be submitted to periods of non-eating of 2 to 10 days. The non-eating causes a constant lowering of the body temperature which, in the 10 days old chickens, is 4-5 times higher than in the 3 months old ages. To an higher diminishing of the temperature it corresponds an higher loss percentage of weight. In normal conditions the temperature tends to increase from morning to evening, while during the non-eating period it diminishes. With repeated non-eating periods the colling increases. The difference between young and old animals would depend on differences in quantity of their basal metabolism (lower in the old aged) and on the different availability of energetic material in reserve (higher percentage in the old aged).