Growth performance and feeding cost of weaned rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) fed graded levels of oven dried poultry droppings based diet

Abstract

Thirty six weaned mixed breed rabbits aged between 5 -6 weeks were used to investigate the growth performance and feeding cost of rabbits fed graded levels of oven dried poultry droppings. The rabbits were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments with three replicates and three rabbits per replicate in the ratio of 2:1 (2 females and I male) in a completely randomized design. poultry droppings were oven dried at 100 c, 80 c, 60 c, 40 c and incorporated at 0, 20, 40 and 60% levels of inclusion to replace ground nut in the compounded feed or experimental diets and designated as T1,T2 ,T3 and T4 respectively excluding treatment one (T1) . Data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA. Growth performance performance of rabbits showed no significant (P>0.05) differences across the treatment groups. However highest average feed intake was recorded in T3 (40 %) inclusion level 473.60 g and the lowest in T3 (40 %) of 458.80 g. The result of cost of feeding revealed that as the inclusion level of oven dried poultry increased the cost of feeding rabbits reduces The trial revealed that oven dried poultry dropping can be used at 40 %level of inclusion in the rabbit dietwithout posing any threat to the animal.