%0 Journal Article %T Age and Gender Depending Growth of Feathers and Feather-Free Body in Modern Fast Growing Meat-Type Chickens %A Christian Wecke %A Daulat Rehman Khan %A Angela Sünder %A Frank Liebert %J Open Journal of Animal Sciences %P 376-392 %@ 2161-7627 %D 2017 %I Scientific Research Publishing %R 10.4236/ojas.2017.74029 %X Two growth experiments with fast growing meat type chickens (Ross 308) were conducted to assess the growth of feathers and feather-free body dependent on age and gender (male:female ratio = 1:1). Birds were reared under uniform management and feeding conditions (floor pens; 15 pens per gender; 5 birds per pen) during the starter (day 1 to 22) and grower period (day 22 to 36). Diets were based on corn, wheat, soybean meal, soybean protein concentrate and balanced with feed amino acids to ensure an equal feed protein quality close to the ideal amino acid ratio by a constant mixture of the feed proteins. At start of the experiment and further on weekly up to the end of the 5^th week, 15 birds per gender (each 3 pens of 5 birds) were selected and 24 h fasted before quantitative de-feathering. Both feather and feather free body fractions were significantly increased with increasing age of the birds (p < 0.001). Feather percentage as related to the empty body weight increased non-linearly from approximately 2% at the end of the first week to about 4% at the end of the experiment. Feather percentage and dry matter content of the feather-free body was significantly higher in female birds (p < 0.001) as compared to males. Further investigations will show how this varying proportions impact on nutrient deposition of modern meat-type chickens dependent on age and gender, respectively. %K Growing Chickens %K Feather Percentage %K Feather-Free Body %K Age %K Gender %U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=79021