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Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources |
MEKARN Regional Conference 2007 |
The performance of growing rabbits fed Ruzi grass, head lettuce residue, Mimosa pigra and water spinach was studied in an experiment using 64 rabbits of 2 breeds, New Zealand White and a crossbred between New Zealand White and native breed, and 2 sexes.
The growth experiment was a 4x2x2 factorial completely randomized design with 3 factors, foliage, breed and sex, and with 4 replications. The rabbits had an average initial weight of 668 g and were about 6 weeks old. They were housed in individual pens and allotted randomly to the treatments. The foliages were fed ad libitum and a basal diet of a commercial concentrate for growing pigs was fed at a restricted level of 2% of body weight on dry matter (DM) basis. In the digestibility experiment the rabbits, 4 per treatment and males only, were fed the same foliages as in the growth experiment but without concentrate.
There were significant differences (P<0.001) in final weight, daily weight gain, total feed intake and feed conversion ratio. Daily weight gain was significantly lower in the group fed Ruzi grass, 14.8 g/day compared to 17.6 g, 18.5 and 18.4 g/day for head lettuce, Mimosa pigra and water spinach, respectively. Feed intake and feed conversion ratio was lowest for the rabbits fed water spinach, 66 g DM/day and 3.6 kg DM/kg live weight, respectively. The New Zealand White breed had a significantly higher daily gain than the crossbred rabbits (P<0.05), 18.0 and 16.7 g/day, respectively. There were no significant differences due to sex. The digestibility coefficients (%) of DM, organic matter, crude protein, crude fiber, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber were significantly lower (P<0.001) in the rabbits fed Ruzi grass. Breed had no influence on digestibility.
In conclusion, the rabbits fed head lettuce residue, Mimosa pigra and water spinach as a forage had higher growth rate and digestibility coefficients than the rabbits fed Ruzi grass.