RESPONSE OF WEANER RABBITS TO DIETARY LEVELS OF COWPEA HUSK AS REPLACEMENT FOR WHEAT OFFAL

Abstract

The study was carried out at, Departmental Teaching and Research farm Yelwa campus, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi to determine the response of weaner rabbits to dietary levels of cowpea husk as replacement for wheat offal. A total of thirty (30) weaner rabbits were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments, replicated three times in a Completely Randomized Design, in which cowpea husk replaced wheat offal at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%, and designated as diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The results of the study revealed that, performance parameters such as the total weight gain (483.50 to 624.50g), total feed intake (4092.00 to 4362.16g), feed conversion ratio (7.03 to 9.02) and feed efficiency (0.12 to 0.14) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. Nutrient digestibility indicated no significant (P>0.05) difference across the dietary treatments. The dry matter digestibility ranged from 85.20 to 87.06% on diets 2 and 1 respectively. Crude protein values varied between 81.90% on diet 5 and 82.20% on diet 4. Crude fibre ranged between 61.97 to 72.06% on diets 5 and 1 respectively... Total feed cost also ranged from ₦983.65 to ₦1397.38 on diets 5 and 1 respectively. Feed cost per kg gain had the highest value (₦2710.51) on diet 2 while the lowest (₦1844.67) was recorded for diet 4. Cost saving varied between -₦434.96 and ₦430.88 on diets 2 and 4 respectively. Based on the results obtained from this study, it can be concluded that cowpea husk can replace wheat offal up to 100% level in the diets of weaner rabbits without any adverse effect on their growth performance and nutrient digestibility. However, Diet 4 (75% cowpea husk) had a cost benefit of (₦430.88) with percent cost saving of 18.94% and is therefore recommended for rabbit production.