Effect of protein and fat levels in complete pelleted diets on the growth of mink kits.

Abstract

An experiment involving 100 male Pastel mink kits was conducted to study the effect of protein and fat levels in a complete pelleted diet. Protein contents of diets were adjusted to 25, 35 and 45%, respectively, with white fish meal, and fat content was varied by inclusion of 11, 16 or 21% stabilized tallow in diets providing each level of dietary protein. The greatest body weight gain was obtained when a diet containing 35% of protein and 24% of fat was fed. Also, to attain growth comparable to that resulting from feeding conventional raw meat and fish food, the pelleted diet had to contain at least 35% of protein and more than 15% of fat. Kits fed 25% protein diets grew very slowly regardless of fat content of the diet. Fur quality tended to be poorer when the high fat diets were fed. Feed/gain ratio was inversely related to fat level in the diets.