Influence of Feed Manipulation on the Growth of Dutch Rabbit

B.I.O. AKPOBASA
Dept of Agricultural Technology, School of Agriculture,
Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro, Delta State
Email: akpobasaaben@yahoo.com / lawakpobasa@gmail.com
Abstract
The phenomenon of compensatory growth has been relatively applied and successful both experimentally and due to natural occurrences common among ruminant. Rabbit a pseudo-ruminant was therefore chosen in this study to determine the influence of feed manipulation on the growth of Dutch rabbit by restriction of feeds at age 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age. Thirty-Six bunnies were randomly allocated to four (4) feeding regimes were 185g of diet was continually fed for 12 weeks except for manipulation by restriction. The feed manipulation were (R0)
no restriction, (R1) Restriction from the 16th weeks (R2) Restriction from the 12th weeks and (R3) Restriction from 8th weeks of age. Each treatment was replicated thrice with 3 rabbits per replicates. The rabbits were tagged and their body weight were taken weekly from weaning to maturity. Data collected was subjected to analysis of variance. Results obtained showed that feed manipulation influenced body weight at 3rd and 4th months in post weaning rabbits. However, from the study , it can be suggested that feed restriction shortly after weaning leads to weight lost as observed in (R3) were body weight gain was significantly (P≤ 0.05) reduced in Dutch rabbits restricted from feed at 2 – 3 month post weaning age. Thus feed manipulation by restriction should be discouraged at early post weaning age in growing Dutch rabbits. Although, growing rabbit adapts very well to an intake limitation strategy, without any aggressive behaviour for congener. In conclusion, restriction strategies could improve profitability of rabbit breeding, but they should be adapted to any specific breeding situation, according to the market, feed, prices, etc