Growth Response of Japanese Quails (Cortunix cortunix) Fed Varying Levels of Tiger Nut (Cyperus esculentus L) Seed meal

Abstract

A 49 days experiment was conducted to investigate the replacement value of tiger nut seed meal as substitute for maize in diets of Japanese quails. Four different diets were formulated such that tiger nut meal (TGM) replaced maize at 0% (T1), 25% (T2), 50% (T3) and 75% (T4) respectively in a Complete Randomized Design. The control diet (T1) contained no tiger nut. One hundred and twenty day-old Japanese quails were used for the experiment to determine the effect of the test diets on dietary proximate compositions, feed intake, weight gain, body weight changes and Feed Conversion Ratio.The quail chicks were arranged into the 4 dietary treatments, each containing 3 replicates with 30 birds per dietary treatment and 10 birds per replicate. Result indicated that the control diet did not vary from the test diets in proximate composition. The crude fat, crude fiber and metabolizable energy portrayed an increasing trend whereas, the crude protein, ash and nitrogen free extract portrayed a decreasing trend as the level of tiger nut increased. Significant differences were observed in the average values of daily feed intake, daily weight gain, body weight changes and Feed Conversion Ratios of the dietary treatments. However, based on average values, the average daily feed intake, average body weight changes and average Feed Conversion Ratio was significantly different between the quails fed control diets and the quails fed 75% (T4) tiger nut based diets, which suggest that tiger nut did not produce adverse effect up to the 50% levels. Average body weight changes increased (98.06 g – 105.17 g) as the level of tiger nut increased. T2 recorded the lowest FCR value (5.73) among the test diets which portrays it as the best in terms of feed conversion to lean meat. T4 recorded the highest FCR value though (6.10). The average daily weight gain however, portrayed significant differences, wherein, T2 recorded the highest value (3.78 g/day), whereas, T4 recorded the least value (3.32 g/day). This indicates that tiger nut depresses weight gain at 75% level of inclusion. Based on the Feed Conversion Ratio and daily weight gain, the range of 25% (T2) and 50% level (T3) is recommended for replacing maize.