The economics of food choice in chicks

Growing chicks offered diets containing either surfeit or inadequate protein in the day but adequate protein at night adopted a pattern of nocturnal feeding but did not eliminate diurnal meals. Their weight gain surpassed that of corresponding dietary controls who received continuous access to surfeit or inadequate protein but was less than that of chicks with continuous access to a standard diet. Chicks receiving the standard diet at night with no food available in the light phase also grew but did so at a slower rate than the diurnally feeding control group. The shift in feeding patterns was not accompanied by a shift in body temperature, nor was nocturnal antipredator behavior, characterized by sustained motoric inhibition, disrupted by nocturnal feeding. These data demonstrate that feeding specializations which have been selected over a species' evolutionary history are not rigidly fixed but can be modified by the economic relations in the current habitat.