| Popis: |
The potentials of two common weeds, Aspilia africana (Aa) and Tridax procumbens (Tp), as forages for rabbits were investigated in a study that lasted for 70 days. Thirty five (35) rabbit bucks of mixed breed of between 5 to 7 weeks of age, weighing 519 ±5g, were used for the study. The haematological, carcass and organ characteristics were examined. The rabbits were divided into 5 treatment groups of seven (7) rabbits each, with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a complete randomized design. Group 1 was placed on sole concentrate feeding while concentrate was skipped for 1, 2 and 3 days in groups 2, 3, and 4 respectively with ad-libitum forage (Aspilia africana {Aa} and Tridax procumbens {Tp}) feeding. Group 5 was fed on a sole forage diet of 250 g Aa: 250 g Tp for 56days, after which they were fed concentrate in addition to the forage for two weeks. The red blood cell count values for rabbits on sole concentrate feeding was significantly (P0.05). The final weights of the rabbits decreased linearly (P0.05) but significantly higher (P0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. It can be concluded that although feeding rabbit with sole concentrate gave the highest weight gain, the use of these forages could reduce cost of production, especially feed cost, drastically, and where it is difficult to get concentrates, these forages can be fed to rabbits for maintenance. Their use would be expected to minimize cost of maintaining a clean environment and the use of non-competitive forages as rabbit feeds could encourage rural rabbit production.Keywords: Carcass, growing rabbit, forages, relative organs weights, skip-a day |
