Performance of grower rabbits fed Gmelina arborea leaf meal

Abstract

Forty five weaner rabbits, aged four weeks of mixed sexes were used to investigate the performance of rabbits fed Gmelina arborea leaf meal (GALM) at 0,10,20,30 and 40% inclusion level. Increasing the level of GALM had no significant effect (P>0.05) on feed intake, weight gain and feed to gain ratio. There was also no treatment effect on nitrogen intake (P>0.05). Furthermore, increasing the dietary level of GALM in the diet also had no significant effect (P>0.05) on faecal nitrogen, nitrogen retained and nitrogen digestibility. However, the cost of feed declined with the corresponding increase in the GALM dietary level. The result shows that Gmelina arborea leaf meal could be fed to grower rabbits up to 40% inclusion level without any adverse effect.

Keywords: Gmelina arborea, rabbits, leaf meal, dietary level.