COMPLEMENTARY INFLUENCE OF CHICK SIZE AND PROTEIN LEVEL ON THE POST-HATCH GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF JAPANESE QUAIL (COTURNIX COTURNIX JAPONICA) CHICKS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.4654Keywords:
Japanese quails, chick size and protein levelAbstract
The differences in chick weights at hatch causes inequalities in their growth and could be compensated by the diets given. The experiment was aimed at determining the complementary effect of chick sizes (CS) and protein levels (PL) on the post-hatch growth performance of quails. 810-day old unsexed Japanese quail chicks were used for a six week growth study. At hatch, the quail chicks were grouped according to the various egg sizes of small (<9.00g), medium (9.00-9.99g) and large (10.00-13.00g). The initial weights (INWT) of the chicks were 5.80, 6.16 and 7.59g, respectively. They were raised in wooden cages with feed and water provided ad lib. Chicks from a particular egg size constituted a treatment and each placed on three dietary PL of 24, 26 and 28%. The birds were randomly assigned into 9 treatment combinations with an average of 90 chicks per treatment combination involving 3 replicates of 30 quails
each. The experiment was a completely randomized design in a 3x3 factorial arrangement. The best interaction effects of CS x PL on the final live weights (FWT) were recorded in the large and small chicks fed 28% PL. The same trend was observed for the feed intake (FI) and the average daily weight gain
(ADWG). The growth indices were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by the CS and PL, this implies that, the differences in the initial weight of the small chicks in relation to their counterpart were compensated by very high PL.
