NUTRIENT UTILIZATION AND GROWTH-PERFORMANCE OF RABBITS FED DIETS BASED ON MAIZE, CASSAVA OR THEIR BY-PRODUCTS

A 70-day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate nutrient intake, dige stibility and growth characteristics of rabbits fed maize grain (mg), maize offal (mo), cassava tuber (et) or cassava peel (cp) based diets. The four test ingredients were included at 30.84% in diets supplying 17% crude protein. The consumption of dry matter, crude protein and cr ude fibre were higher (P<0.05) in mo and cp based diets, while apparen t digestibilities were better (P<0.05) in rabbits fed mg and ct based diets. Rabbits fed mo attained the highest (P<0.05) body weight gain, followed by those fed ng and ct and the group fed cp gained the least. Feed consumption was higher (P<0.05) in rabbits fed cp and mo than mg and ct diets; and the gain:feed ratio was the reverse of the feed int ake. It is concluded that no and ct are effective substitutes for mg, however, diets based on cp would require nutrient supplementation.