STRATEGY FOR THE USE OF NATURAL ZEOLITES IN DIETS FOR LIGHT LAYERS

In order to standardize feed consumption in layers housed in cages Pt a rate of 4 hens per cage in a restricted feeding system, 400 White Le ghorn hens from 33 to 76 weeks of age were submitted to two main syste ms of supplying the feed: ad libitum and restricted according to a com pletely randomized design. In the treatments where zeolite was include d, feed supply was ad libitum which substituted the cereal or was adde d in the concentrates or the total feed to form 5 experimental treatme nts including two controls without zeolite with ad libitum or restrict ed feeding with 10 replications per treatment, at a rate of 8 hens per replication. Zeolite inclusion in ad libitum feeding systems showed t hat feed consumption (31.4 to 31.6 kg/bird) could be similar to that o f the restricted system (29.8 kg/bird) and lower than in the ad libitu m system without zeolite (33.9 kg/bird) with better laying indices (55 .4 to 58.3% vs 52.7%) mass conversions (3.08 to 3.16 vs 3.20), viabili ty (86.3 to 95.0 vs 82.5%) and physical state of the birds at the end of the laying period, since only birds from the restricted system lost weight, while the rest gained a eight. This feeding strategy is recom mended due to its benefits in any of the ways in which zeolite is incl uded in the diet.