Performance, blood biochemical constituents and mineral bal ance of west african dwarf sheep fed preserved elephant grass, layers' droppings and cassava peel diets during dry season

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the dry season to evaluate the performance, blood biochemical constituents and minerall balance in fifteen West African Dwarf rams fed diets containing preserved elephant grass 45,40,35% and layers’ dropping at 25, 30 and 35% respectively. The rams were divided into three groups of 5 animals each balanced for body weight. Each groups of ram were randomly allocated to one of the experiments diets in a day feeding trial. Results showed thatvoluntary dry matter intake (DM) decreased (P<0.05) from 396.92 to 325.88g/d as the proportion of layers’ droppings in the diet increased. The rams fed diet 3 were heavier compared to the rams on the other diets. Packed cell volume, RBC,WBC, BUN, glucose, total protein, Ca, K, Na and Cl were similar (P>0.05).  sawdustash could be utilizedfor feeding sheep during the dry season for good