Preliminary study on the performance of rabbit bucks fed sole forage, concentrate and their mixtures

Abstract

Thirty five rabbit bucks of mixed breed of 7 weeks of age, weighing 519±5.00 g were used to investigate the potentials of two common weeds, Aspilia africana (Aa) and Tridax procumbens (Tp) as forages. The rabbits were divided into 5 groups in a completely randomised design. Group 1 was placed on sole concentrate feeding; concentrate feeding was skipped for 1, 2 and 3 days in groups 2, 3, and 4 respectively with ad libitum mixed-forage Aa and Tp feeding. Group 5 was fed on a mixed-forage diet of 250 g Aa: 250g Tp. The daily pellet intake decreased linearly as the number of days that concentrate feeding was skipped increased. Rabbits in groups 2 and 4 reached puberty at 13.8 and 14.0 weeks respectively, which were longer (p<0.05) than 12.8 and 13.1 weeks for groups 1 and 3. None of the rabbits on the sole forage diet reached puberty at the end of the experiment. Supplementation of the test forages with 23-43 g of a balanced concentrate feed per rabbit per day could give satisfactorily performance.