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Dec 5, 2023Keywords:
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Main Article Content
The Effect of Forage Substitution with Concentrate Feed on the Growth Performance of New Zealand White Rabbits
Abstract
Local rabbit farmers use natural forage in feeding their rabbits and with forage becoming increasingly scarce in the dry season, this becomes a major problem. This study aimed at evaluating the influence of substituting forage with concentrate feed on the growth performance of rabbits. A total of twenty-one rabbits were grouped into three treatments; T1, T2 and T3 with each treatment group having seven rabbits. The rabbits in T1 were fed entirely (100%) on forage, those of T2 were fed entirely (100%) on concentrate feed while those of T3 were fed with 50% forage and 50% concentrate feed. The average daily weight gain and the weekly average weights were measured from week 6 to week 14. Two-way ANOVA was used to assess differences between the treatments means while the Tukey’s multiple comparisons test was used to identify the difference between the treatment pairs. The results showed that the weekly average weight for T3 was significantly higher than that of T2 and T1 while that of T2 was significantly higher than that of T1. The average daily weight gain was significantly higher in T3 compared to T2 and T1 while that of T2 was significantly higher than T1.
Practical application: When rearing animals, the desire is to get healthy animals and a substantial weight gain within the shortest time possible especially for farmers rearing the animals for economic purposes. This study has shown that, local rabbit farmers who are mostly using entirely natural forage for feeding their rabbits will get an even better growth performance for their rabbits if they substitute a portion of the natural forage given to the animals with concentrate feed. This is more relevant in the heart of the dry season when there is a general scarcity of natural forage to feed animals.
