Abstract 57

Payne,-M; Owen,-E; Capper,-BS; Wood,-JF; Radwan,-MAH

E. Owen, Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading, Berkshire RG6 2AT, UK.

Tropical-Animal-Health-andProduction. 1988, 20: 4, 212-218; 12 ref.

Rabbits were fed on diets containing grass silage or whole grains and supplementary pelleted concentrate of cassava/cottonseed. Poor quality grass silage (pH 4.9) was almost completely rejected by young rabbits fed on a supplementary concentrate at 17.8 g or 35.5 g DM/day. Rabbits on the lower level of concentrate lost liveweight at a rate of 0.35 g/day. In a 40-day trial rabbits initially weighing 1.77 kg fed on complete pelleted diets containing maize 667 g/kg or sorghum 667 g/kg showed improved liveweight gains of 22.6 g over rabbits fed whole grains and pelleted supplements (19.4 g). In a second experiment pelleting or type of cereal had no significant effect on liveweight gain or feed conversion ratio. Pelleting significantly improved crude protein digestibility of diets whilst maize diets were superior in DM, organic matter and crude protein digestibilities. Inclusion of cottonseed meal containing free gossypol 700 mg/kg in diets at 150 and 300 g/kg did not affect growth rate or feed conversion in rabbits weighing 0.92 kg initially. These diets contained cassava up to 344 g/kg, suggesting this ingredient can be used in rabbit diets as an energy source in place of whole grains.