Abstract

An experiment was conducted to assess the performance and carcass characteristics of growing rabbits fed different fibre sources in a completely randomised design. Totally 30 rabbits of mixed sexes at the age of 8 weeks (56 days) were randomly allocated to five dietary groups averaging 500.00±27.26. The fibre sources are: wheat offals, rice bran, palm kernel cake, maize bran and brewer dried grain. Data were collected on the feed intake and weight gain while carcass characteristics was evaluated at week 12 of the experiment. Results revealed significant (p<0.05) differences in the values obtained for weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Average weight gain ranged from 10.95 to 16.70g/day, while FCR ranged from 4.38 to 6.85. Feed cost per weight gain ranged from ?379.79 to ?636.98, while the saving/kg gain ranged from ?-14.28 to ?224.9. Among the cut parts and organs examined, hind limb, back, neck, lungs and heart were significantly (p<0.05) influenced by dietary treatment. The results suggest that rabbits have the capacity to utilize fibrous feed effectively, but can perform better on maize offal and brewers dried grains.

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