PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF WEANED RABBITS FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF WATER MELON (Citrullus lanatus) RIND MEAL

Abstract

Livestock production is often plagued with high cost of production due to cost of conventional feed ingredients

which many farmers cannot afford; therefore, the use of non-conventional feed ingredients has been an

alternative way to foster livestock production and improve productive capacity of the animal genetic resources.

This study was conducted to determine the performance characteristics of weaned rabbits fed diets containing graded levels of watermelon rind in the diet. An 8-week study was carried out to evaluate the performance of weaned rabbits fed graded levels of water melon rind (WMR). Twelve (12) weaned rabbits of mixed breed with initial weight of 760.00g -843.33g were used in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three animals per treatment each animal served as replicate. The animals were fed water melon rind at 0%, 4%, 8% and 12%. The control diet was formulated to meet the nutritional needs of growing rabbits. Results obtained revealed that there were significant (p< 0.05) differences for performance parameters assessed among the treatments. It was concluded that water melon rind could be included in the diet of weaned rabbits up to 12% without any negative effect on the growth performance of the rabbits. Rather it has the potentials to boost productive performance of the rabbits.