GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF WEANED RABBITS FED GMELINA ARBOREA SEED MEAL

Abstract

Dry season weight gain loss, high cost of feeding resources and concentrates are challenges of rabbit production in developing countries, therefore, necessitating the search for alternative feed resources with comparable nutritive values to the conventional feed resources in rabbit diet. Hence, this research was designed to evaluate the effect of replacing wheat offal (WO) with Gmelina arborea seed meal (GASM) on the performance of growing rabbit. Thirty-six (36) weaned rabbits (647.92±98.92g) of mixed breeds were exposed to four (4) experimental diets of partial/total replacement of WO with  GASM at 0%, 33.33%, 66.67% and 100% for eight (8) weeks in a CRD laid out in three (3) replicates. Daily feed intake (FI) and weekly weight gain (WG) were collected while specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) were determined and subjected to analysis of variance test using DMRT to separate significant means. Results revealed that rabbits on 33.33% GASM substitution had similar performance with 0%GASM diet. Rabbits fed 100% GASM had significantly the highest (86.51) FI while the control diet (0%GASM) had significantly the best WG (18.45), FCR (3.69), PER (1.56) and SGR (0.02) with the rabbits on 0%GASM having significantly the lowest FI (67.86) implying that GASM only enhanced FI in rabbits fed GASM substituted diet. Therefore, substitution at 33.33% could be beneficial and lower levels of substitutions could be tried to ascertain substitution level that could enhance growth with better feed intake