Nutritional evaluation of diets containing coconut bran supplied to slaughter rabbits - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v31i4.6103

Abstract

This work evaluated the use of coconut bran (CB) in the feeding of slaughter rabbits. For the performance trial, 60 rabbits with 43 days of age were used, distributed in a CRD with 5 treatments, with 12 replications per treatment, lasting 42 days, with the inclusion of CB in the levels of 0, 6.25, 12.5, 18.75 and 25%. To test the digestibility of the diets used o CRD with five treatments and three replications during five days. In the performance test, there was no significant effect (p > 0.05) for the characteristics of weight gain, daily weight gain among the treatments, excluding the zero level. There was a quadratic effect (p < 0.05), among the treatments, excluding the zero level, for daily average intake and feed conversion. The average feed intake was different from the control (diets without CB) in the levels of 18.75 and 25%. The CB showed high values for digestibility coefficients (DC) of gross energy, crude protein and ether extract, an can be indicated in the diet until the 25% level in relation to food conversion and diets with increasing levels of CB. It has the benefit of improved DE; however, it presents reduction in the CDCP.