GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF WEANER RABBITS FED DIETARY LEVELS OF PARKIA (Parkia biglobosa) PULP MEAL.

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the utilization of dietary levels of parkia pulp meal by weaner rabbits. A total of 16 weaner rabbits were usedand the Parkia pulp meal was included at 0, 33.3, 66.7 and 100% levels in a completely randomized design. The experiment was conducted in 4 replicates per treatment. Data were collected on daily feed intake, daily weight gain and carcass analysis. The daily feed intake ranged from 45.58-51.12g on diet 2 and 3 respectively while the daily weight gain ranged from 11.43-13.57 on diets 4 and 1 respectively. The best FCR of 3.23 was recorded on the control diet and this shows progressive decline with increasing inclusion levels of parkia pulp meal. However, the result of the experiment showed a non significant treatment effect on all the performance parameters. The carcass analysis also showed a non significant treatment effect on all the parameters except the liver and large intestine (P<0.005). The feed cost/kg also ranged from 4.31-90.02 on diet 4 and 1 respectively. The feed cost/kg weight gain also ranged from N290.70-355.73 on diets 1 and 4 respectively. The result shows that parkia pulp meal can only replace 33.3% of maize in weaner rabbits diets because at higher level the cost per kg is higher.