Nutritional Evaluation of Honey Bee Slum gum Meal as Replacement for Maize in the Feed of Growing Rabbits

Abstract

As part of the efforts in developing alternative feed ingredients for feeding rabbits a feeding trial was conducted to investigate the nutritional potential of Honey Bee slum gum meal (HBSM) on the performance characteristics of growing rabbit. Thirty (30) growing rabbit of 7 weeks of age were weight-balanced and divided into three (3) dietary treatment groups of 10 rabbit each in a completely randomized designed experiment. Diet 1 had 0% inclusion of HBSM while 25 and 50% maize in diets 2 and 3 were replaced by HBSM respectively. Rabbits received feed and water ad libitum during the 12 weeks of the experiment. The final weights decrease linearly (P<0.05) as the level of inclusion increases (1663.20g 1630.00g and 1458.40g for rabbits on treatments 1, 2 and 3 respectively). Rabbit on diets 1 and 2 had higher (P<0.05) daily weight gains (13.59g and 13.15 respectively) compared with rabbits on diet 3 (11.1g). The digestibility of nutrients were not affected (P>0.05) by the dietary treatments. The values obtained for final weight, carcass weight, abdominal fat, kidney, liver and lungs were significantly (P<0.05) affected by dietary treatment. HBSM can be used as an alternative for substituting maize in growing rabbits diets up of 25% beyond which depression in performance is observed.

Key words: Honey slum gum meal, Digestibility, Final weight, growing rabbits.