EFFECT OF ROUGHAGE BASED DIET ON GROWTH PERFORMANCES OF RABBIT

Abstract

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of roughage based diet on growth performances of rabbit like growth performances, hematological and sero-biochemical profile and nutrient digestibility of growing rabbit. There were three dietary treatment groups such as traditional diet (Ad-libitum roughage and concentrate) , 50% concentrate+50% roughage (DM basis), 100% roughage treated as T0, T1 and T2 respectively, in which diets T1 and T2 are considered as treatment groups and T0 is control group. A total of forty five (45) weaned crossbred New Zealand White (NZW) growing rabbits (aged about 50 to 60 days) was distributed into three treatment groups each having three replications following Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Green grass and concentrate mixture was offered ad-libitum for control group. From this study it was found that weekly concentrate and DM intake was significantly influenced by 50% concentrate + 50% roughage and 100% roughage diet. Further, the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly differed (P<0.05) among the treatment groups. Final body weight, weekly body weight and weight gain was not differed significantly (P>0.05) with roughage based diet. The nutrient digestibility of DM, CP, CF, Ash and NFE was also varied significantly (P<0.05) among the treatment group compared to control group except EE. There was significant difference existed in serological parameters (P<0.05) among the treatment groups. So we can conclude that rabbit can be reared feeding roughage although body weight gain was little decreased than the traditional diet and other concentrate group. A little decreased body weight is less economic loss than feeding concentrate. So it can be concluded that supplementation of roughage based diet can be used in the diet of growing rabbit.