EFFECT OF FEEDING TIME ON THE GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF ISA BROWN PULLETS

Abstract

Restricted access to feed at certain period of the day improves markers of metabolic health in animals. This study is aimed at investigating the impact of feeding time on the growth and morphological traits of Isa Brown chicken. Eighty Isa brown pullets at 49 days were divided into two groups of 40 chickens per group with four replicates of 10 chickens per group. The first group represented as G8, were fed at 8.00 hrs while the second group represented as G4, were given feed at 16.00 hrs. Water was given ad-libitum while feeding with commercial grower mash was restricted to 800 g per replicate per day at the specified time. The study lasted for 40 days. The live weight of the chickens was measured on weekly basis using a table top scale of 3 kg maximum capacity. The following linear body traits were measured in centimetre using a tape rule: leg length (LL), thigh length (TL), back length (BL) and wing length (WL). The result of the study showed that the G8 chickens recorded better and higher growth performance than G4 from 14 days till the end of the study. G8 chickens had significantly (p<0.05) longer length for all the linear traits measured except in LL at 49 and 56 days, and BL at 56 and 70 days where G4 chickens had significantly (p<0.05) longer length than G8 chickens. The study concludes that evening (4pm) feeding of Isa Brown chickens was not significantly optimal.