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Tropicultura 2012
Utilization of Arachis hypogea (Groundnut) and Lablab purpureus (lablab) Forage Meal Fed Sole or Mixed by Growing RabbitsKeywords: Forage meal Performance , Sex , Groundnut , Lablab , Rabbits , Nigeria Abstract: Thirty-six crossbred growing rabbits were used to evaluate performance of rabbits on sole and mixed forage meals in a 3 x 2 factorial experiment consisting three treatments made of Arachis hypogea (groundnut, GFM), Lablab purpureus (lablab, LFM) forage meals and 50:50 mixture of both forage meals (GLFM), and two sex groups (males and females) in a completely randomized design. Both forages were harvested, chopped and milled before inclusion at 50% rate into the concentrate diet to make complete diets and offered at 125 g/rabbit/day in earthen feeders in the morning at 08.00 hr. Results obtained indicated that forage type did not affect final weight of rabbits. Feed intake and weight gain respectively were similar for GFM (75.26 ± 4.18, 6.02 ± 1.18 g/day), LFM (78.91 ± 3.50, 7.86 ± 0.99 g/day) and GLFM (74.35 ± 3.54, 7.53 ± 1.00 g/day). Feed cost and feed cost/kg gain were also similar for all the forage types. Male and female rabbits had similar final weight, feed intake, weight gain, feed cost and feed cost/kg gain. While weight gain was higher on GFM (7.95 ± 1.29 g/day) and LFM (7.37 ± 1.39 g/day) than GLFM (5.25 ± 1.29 g/day) for male rabbits, for female rabbits, weight gain was similar on GLFM (9.81 ± 1.53 g/day) and LFM (8.33 ± 1.39 g/day) and lower on GFM (4.09 ± 1.97 g/day). Saving/kg gain for male rabbits fed GFM and LFM was $ 0.64-0.81 than GLFM while it was $ 0.91-1.35 for female rabbits fed LFM and GLFM than GFM.
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