PERFORMANCE OF GROWING RABBITS FED MELON HUSK BASED DIETS

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of growing rabbits (n =24) fed melon husk (MH) based diets for a period of 8 weeks. The rabbits were allocated in a completely randomized design to 3 dietary treatments of 0%, 10% and 20%MH for treatmenis I to 3, respectively of 8 rabbits each with each group further subdivided into two groups of 4 rabbits each, Results revealed that feed intake decreased as the values of MH inclusion increased (P>0.05) in the diets. The daily weight gain (g/day) varied (P<0.05) across treatments ranging from 10.71 to 12.14 with 20%MH and the control diet been significantly the same (P>0.05), with the feed conversion ratio following the same trend. Nutrient digestibility differed (P<0.05) across treatments with crude protein values ranging from 65. 89% and 66.45% with 20%MH ranking the same (P<0.05) with the control diet. The cost of, ffeed to produce kg weight gain was highest in the control diet and lowest in 20%MH inclusion level, it was therefore concluded that melon husk can completely be used to replace maize at 20% inclusion level for optimum performance of rabbits.