Growth Performance and Digestibility in Growing Rabbits Fed Diet Supplemented with Powdered Ginger

Abstract

Sixteen (16) California white weaned rabbits of both sexes with average age of 6 weeks old weighing an average of 451.16 g were placed on four dietary treatment (4 rabbits per treatment) for ten (10) weeks. The experiment was designed to investigate the growth performance and digestibility in growing rabbit fed diet supplemented with ginger. The diet T1, T2, T3 and T4 contain of 0 kg of ginger, 0.25 kg of ginger, 0.5 kg of ginger, 0.75 kg of ginger respectively. Result obtained showed that rabbits growth performance increases with the increase in the inclusion of ginger with the highest weight gain in dietary T4(0.75 kg) with weight gain of 976.96 g, The feed intake was highest in T4(0.75 kg) with the feed intake of 45.39 g and the lowest feed efficiency ratio was recorded in T4 (0.75 kg) with feed efficient ratio of 3.17. The varying level of inclusion of ginger did not significantly affect the digestibility of dry matter, crude fiber, nitrogen free extract and ether extract. The crude protein was significant with T4 (0.75 kg) with the highest apparent digestibility of 78.62% to obtain maximum performance. Higher levels of incorporation of ginger resulted in increase in growth performance and digestibility therefore should be encouraged at T4 (0.75 kg).