Require less knowledge and work: The dogs choose when and how much they eat. Each animal can eat: When several dogs are housed together, ad libitum feeding allows all dogs to eat peacefully. With set meal feeding, dominant dogs sometimes prevent other dogs from eating.

What is the advantage of ad libitum feeding compared to restricted controlled feeding?

As food restriction to 75% of ad libitum intake improves longevity (as seen above), animals can be exposed to test compounds for a longer period, thereby improving the sensitivity of bioassays to detect compound-specific chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity [67].

Why is ad libitum feeding of broilers are considered essential in their feeding program?

Modern broiler strains show a four times higher daily growth, while feed conversion ratio is less than half compared with strains in use 60 years ago (Zuidhof et al., with ad libitum feed intake can lead to a seven times lower mortality, improved egg quality, 1.5 times higher peak production and 20−25% higher egg ...