CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF HYLA RABBITS FED GRADED LEVELS OF WATERMELON WASTE WITH WHEAT OFFAL AS ABSORBENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.6645Keywords:
Carcass characteristics, hyla rabbits, watermelon, wheat offal, absorbentAbstract
This study was conducted to evaluate carcass characteristics of Hyla rabbits fed graded levels of watermelon waste with wheat offal as absorbent. Forty five Hyla rabbits of 5-6 months of age were used for this experiment. The experiment lasted for four months. The rabbits were allotted to five dietary treatments (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) in a completely randomized design with 9 rabbits per treatment. Data were collected on carcass characteristics of the rabbit and subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using SAS version 9.3.1. Based on the results, watermelon waste with wheat
offal (WRWO) had significant effect (p<0.05) on the carcass characteristics such as live weight, bled eight and de-skinned weight of Hyla rabbits. There was no significant effect (p>0.05) of the experimental diets on skin weight, eviscerated weight, dressing percentage, head, forelimb, hind limb, neck, liver, kidney, lung and spleen.It can therefore be concluded that inclusion of watermelon waste with wheat offal as absorbent can be fed to Hyla rabbit without adverse effect on their carcass yield.
