ISSN 2375-0936
African Journal of Water Conservation and Sustainability Vol. 1 (2), pp. 039-044, September, 2013. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Reproductive potentials of rabbit does fed diets containing processed cassava peel/blood meal mixtures
Ojebiyi O. O.1*, Farinu G. O.1, Babatunde G. M.1, Togun V. A.2, Oseni S. O.3, Shittu M. D.2 and Amao O. A.1
1Deparment of Animal Nutrition and Biotechnology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
P.M.B. 4000, Oyo State, Nigeria.
2Department of Animal Production and Health, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
P. M. B. 4000, Oyo State, Nigeria.
3Department of Animal Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
Accepted 8 April, 2013
Abstract
A study was conducted for 12 weeks using sixty crossbred (Newzealand white x Chinchilla) female rabbits to investigate the effect of feeding cassava peel/blood meal (CPBM) mixture (3:2) on their performance. Ten experimental diets were formulated with diets 1 serving as control. Diets 2, 3 and 4 had 10, 20 and 30% inclusion of ash treated CPBM mixture (ATD+BM); diets 5, 6 and 7 had 10, 20 and 30% parboiled CPBM mixture (PAB+BM) while diets 8, 9 and 10 consist of sun dried CPBM mixture (SUD+BM) at 10, 20 and 30% inclusion level, respectively. The rabbits were divided into 10 treatments group of six rabbits each with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a Randomized Complete Block Design in a factorial arrangement. Age and attainment of puberty shows that SUD+BM had the highest number of does attaining puberty at 4 and 6 weeks, ATD+BM had the highest number at 8 weeks while PAB+BM had the highest number at 10 and 12 weeks. The effect of levels of inclusion of CPBM shows that the 10% levels of inclusion had the highest number of does attaining puberty at the 6th week and 8th week while 20% had highest number of rabbits attaining puberty at 4th and 10th week while at the 12th week rabbits on 20% had the highest number. It can be concluded that rabbits on PAB+BM performed better than others and 20% inclusion level was optimum for the attainment of puberty.
Key words: Reproductive potential, rabbit does, cassava peel, blood meal.