Response of weaner rabbits fed graded levels of palm kernel cake (PKC) as replacement of wheat offal

Abstract

A six weeks experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of weaner rabbits fed graded level of palm kernel cake (PKC) as replacement of wheat offal. Four dietary treatments were formulated in which PKC replaced wheat offal at 0, 20, 40 and 60 % coded as diet 1, 2, 3 and 4. A total of twentyfour (24) weaner rabbits were randomly allotted into four dietary treatment groups in a completely randomized design. Each treatment contained six (6) rabbits replicated three times with 2 animals per replicate. The highest final weight (1237.50 g) and total weight gain (812.50 g) were obtained from the group on diet 3, while the least values were recorded on those fed diet 1 (950.00 and 575.00 g, respectively). Similarly, weekly and daily weight gains were significantly (P<0.05) higher for the group on diet 3 compared to those fed diets 4, 2 and 1. However, daily feed intake and fed conversion ratio of the experimental diets were similar. Most of the carcass parameters measured were not affected by the dietary levels of PKC except lung weight where the highest values were recorded in treatment 2, which did not vary from the result obtained from treatment 4, but significantly (P<0.05) higher than those on treatment 1 and 3. It was concluded that PKC can replace wheat offal at up to 60 % level of inclusion without compromising growth performance and carcass yield.