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The Effect of Soaked Cassava Peels on Weanling Rabbits
O.I.A. Oluremi and A. Nwosu
Abstract
The effects of using milled sun-dried cassava peels soaked in water to
substitute maize in the diet of mixed breed (Californian x Dutch) weanling
rabbits averaging 831 g in body weight were examined in an 8 - week experiment.
One of four portions of fresh cassava peels was sun-dried immediately after
collection while one of each of the remaining 3 was soaked in basin of water for
1, 3, and 5 hrs before sun-drying. Each portion of the milled peels replaced
maize in control diet (MD) at 20% level to give diets UD, S1D,
S3D and S5D, respectively. Soaking of peels stimulated a
progressive reduction in HCN from 24 to 10.33 mg/kg CPM. Daily BWG, feed intake,
FCR and water intake per rabbit were not significantly affected (p >0.05) by
water-soaking cassava peels. Dressing percentage and relative weights of heart,
liver, kidney, stomach, intestine and caecum were also not significantly
different (p>0.05) among treatments. The performance of the S1D
fed rabbit was comparatively better than for the control group, while in terms
of economics of production all the cassava peel meal diets proved to be more
cost effective than the maize-based diet. Cassava peel meal based diets were
more cost effective than the control diet.
Keywords
Rabbits, water-soaked cassava peels, performance, carcass quality
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