Nutritional feeding value and use of Leucaena hay (<em>Leucaena leucocephala</em> cv. Cunningham) for growing rabbits

Abstract

Two trial were carried out to determine the performance of rabbits fed on diets which included Leucaena hay (Leucaena leucocephala cv. Cunninghan). Twenty-eight 40-day old White New Zealand rabbits were employed for the digestibility trial, in a completely randomized design with two treatments and 14 replications. Reference and test diets were used in which Leucaena hay replaced 25% of the dry matter in the reference diet. Digestible dry matter, digestible organic matter, digestible protein, digestible F.D.N. and digestible energy contents of Leucaena hay were respectively 26.87%; 25.30%; 5.32%; 14.66% and 1,286Kcal/kg. In the performance trial, 80 White New Zealand rabbits, from 35 to 70 days old, were used. Rabbits were distributed in a completely randomized design with five treatments (five levels of Leucaena leucocephala hay inclusion: 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%, replaced alfalfa hay) and eight replicates of two animals per experimental unit. Levels of Leucaena leucocephala hay inclusion did not affect performance. Results showed that Leucaena leucocephala hay efficiently replaced the alfalfa hay in diets for growing rabbits.