Effects of Feeding Varying Levels of Unpeeled Cocoyam Meal on the Performance of Growing Quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.5275Keywords:
Cocoyam meal, weight gain, Japanese quails, Coturnixcoturnix japonicaAbstract
A feeding trial of 4 weeks duration was conducted to determine the effect of replacing maize with unpeeled cocoyam of CP; 8.90% and ME; 3110.52kcal/kg on the performance and carcass values of growing Japanese quails. Two hundred three–week old quails of mixed sexes were randomly allocated to five diets in a completely randomized design. Five isonitrogenous (25% CP) diets incorporated 0, 8.31, 16.61, 24.92 and 33.13% of unpeeled cocoyam at the expense of maize. The diets, however, varied in energy levels from 2,706.92 (Diet A) to 2,599.71kcal/kg ME (Diet E). Diets B (2,680.04), C (2,653.05) and D (2,626.25) were lower than diet A. Each diet was replicated three times. Feed intake (11.11, 10.91, 10.37, 13.29 and 15.69g/bird/day), weight gain (2.59, 2.74, 2.17, 2.56, 2.75g/bird/day) and feed conversion ratio (5.26, 4.03, 12.53, 5.39 and 5.64) did not differ significantly from the control. Therefore, unpeeled cocoyam meal could completely replace maize in diets for Japanese quail chicks without adverse effect on performance.