Growth performance, nutrient intake, digestibility and carcass characteristics of goats fed melon Husk (Colocynthis citrillus) and palm oil slurry (Elaeis guineensis) at 50% inclusion level

Abstract

Diets containing melon husk (MH) and palm oil slurry (POS) were fed as alternative feed stuffs to sixteen West African Dwarf (WAD) goats whose weight ranged between 9-10kg The WAD goats were assigned to 4 dietary treatments of 4 replicates each, and fed diets containing 0% MH 0% POS(Control diet, Diet 1), 50% MH 0% POS (Diet 2), 0% MH 50% POS (Diet 3), and 50% MH 50% POS (Diet 4), respectively for 8 weeks as finishing diets, Parameters such as nutrient intake, digestibility and growth performance were measured. Results showed average daily weight gains of 27.83, 26.33 and 22.83g/day by goats on diets 1, 4 and 2 respectively, which differed significantly (P<0.05) and corresponded with dry matter intake of 358.59, 359.39 and 357.29g/day, respectively. Although, animals fed Diet 3 had Dry matter intake of 359.39g/day, they had poor average daily weight gain of 17.17g/day and significantly (P<0.05) poor feed conversion ratio of 16.90, dressing percentage of 51.62% and live weight of 10.67kg. Goats on diets 1, 2 and 4 had dressing percentages of 55.43, 54.01 and 54.66% and corresponding live weights of 11.17, 10.83 and 10.93kg, respectively Goats on diet 4 significantly (p<0.05) greater offal weights than goats on other diets. It was evident that all the Diets had positive effect on growth performance except 50% POS. However, all the diets gave good dressing percentage and offal weights were equally influenced by diets.