EVALUATION OF BODY WEIGHTS AND MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS OF QUAILS FED DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CRUDE PROTEIN

Abstract

A total of ninety (90) one-week-old unsexed brown quails were used to evaluate the performance of quails fed graded levels of dietary protein. The diets formulated had three inclusion levels of dietary protein at 18, 20, and 22%. The experimental birds were randomly distributed into three (3) dietary treatments. These treatments had five replicates each with a total of six birds per replicate and the experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Data on body weight and morphometric characteristics were taken weekly over a period of 5 weeks. The results of the study revealed, that birds fed 22% dietary crude protein showed the best performance in all traits measured however, there was no significant (P>0.05) difference between the treatment for in all traits measured as the birds progressed with age. The study, therefore, recommends that 22% CP inclusion level is the best dietary protein inclusion for optimum body weight gain and linear body growth.