EFFECT OF COMMERCIAL VITAMIN-MINERAL PREMIXES AND MORINGA OLEIFERA LEAF MEAL ON PERFORMANCE AND NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF GROWING RABBITS

Abstract

Rabbit farming largely depends on nutritional status of the diet fed. Like energy and protein, vitamin and mineral are also important in the rabbit diet. This study was conducted to examine the effect of Vitamin Mineral Premix (VMP) and Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing rabbits. Forty-eight (48) growing crossbred rabbits of mixed sexes with age range 5-7 weeks were used for this experiment. The rabbits were divided into eight dietary treatments of six rabbits as replicate in a Complete Randomized Design, which are Diet 1(0% of VMP and MOLM); Diet 2 (MOLM at 0.25kg/100kg); Diet 3 (VMP “grower” at 0.25kg/100kg); Diet 4 (VMP “Broiler starter” at 0.25kg/100kg); Diet 5 (VMP “Broiler finisher” at 0.25kg/100kg); Diet 6 (VMP “grower” +MOLM at 0.125kg/100kg); Diet 7 (VMP “Broiler starter” +MOLM at 0.125kg/100kg); Diet 8 (VMP “Broiler finisher” +MOLM at 0.125kg/100kg). The result obtained showed that daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced across the treatments. Rabbit fed Diet 8 had higher value for daily feed intake (DFI) than other treatments at p<0.05 but rabbit fed control diet utilized the feed most than other treatments which reflect in the feed conversion ratio (4.93). Digestibility result showed that dietary treatments had significant (p<0.05) effect on dry matter, crude fibre, ash and nitrogen free extract except crude protein and crude fat that were not significantly (p>0.05) influenced. Conclusively, addition of Vitamin-mineral premixes and/or Moringa oleifera leaf meal will not affect performance of growing  rabbits.