Studies on the digestibility of soya bean products, cereals, cereal and plant by‐products in diets of dogs

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AbstractThe apparent digestibility of 21 plant materials was evaluated in dog diets using adult beagles. In most cases the digestibility by difference method was used. Apparent crude protein (N × 6.25) digestibility coefficients for textured soya protein, extracted soya meal, full‐fat soya flours and micronised whole soya beans ranged from 0.71 to 0.87. Digestible energy (DE) contents ranged from 14.3 to 20.8 MJ kg DM−1. Samples of wholeground wheat, barley meal and flaked maize were well digested by dogs, as were samples of refined flour, vital gluten, feeding‐oat meal and wheat‐germ meal; apparent energy digestibility coefficients ranged from 0.72 to 0.96. Wheatfeed and two distillers by‐products had lower energy digestibility coefficients (0.39 to 0.59). Other materials with low apparent digestibility in dog diets (probably because of high fibre levels) were walnut meal, almond meal, dried molassed sugar beet pulp and locust bean meal. Gross energy and dry matter digestibility coefficients of below 0.52 were obtained. Data are also presented on the digestibility of samples of rapeseed meal, cassava and dried potato. When comparison was possible, DE values measured for dogs agreed closely with those for pigs for most materials.