An experiment was carried out to evaluate the
digestibility and to define the optimal rate of cowpea pods in growing
rabbits’ diet. In total, 80 weaned rabbits (six week old) were divided
into 20 repetitions of 4 rabbits each. The 5 repetitions of each dietary
treatment were randomly divided into 5 groups. During eight weeks,
rabbits were fed with 4 balanced diets containing 0% (F0, control), 5%
(F5), 10% (F10), and 15% (F15) of cowpea pods. Per treatment, 6 rabbits
were sampled for the digestibility study at the end of the growth
experiment period. The daily feed intake was significantly high in
rabbits fed F10 and F15 (P<0.05). The
digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and crude protein
decreased in F10 and F15 diets compared to F0 and F5 but the difference
was not significant (P>0.05).
At the age of 14 weeks, the average live weight of rabbits was
1865.37±209.97 g, 1644.33±11.07 g, 1596.88±58.52 g and 1515.00±140.4 g
in F10, F15, F0 and F5 respectively. Mortality rate of rabbits was lower
in F0 than in F15. Compared to control diet (F0),
the feed conversion ratio, feeding cost and economic feed efficiency
were better in rabbits fed F10 diet but not significant (P>0.05). The results demonstrated that up to 10% of
cowpea pods can be included efficiently in growing rabbits’ diet.
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