MURIU J. L, NJOKA-NJIRU E. N., TUITOEK J. K., NANUA J. N.
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to study the effect of partially replacing maize
with sorghum in the diet of growing rabbits in the year 2000. Twenty five (25)
young New Zealand rabbits were selected at random and put into a complete randomised
design experiment involving five treatments of five replicates each. Five experimental
diets were formulated to contain 16 % CP. The energy part in diet I was supplied
by maize (40g/100g of diet) while in diet 2,3,4 and 5, maize was replaced by
25, 50, 75 and 100 % high-tannin sorghum respectively. The tannin content of
the diet was 0.02, 0.50, 0.97, J. 75 and 1.9 catechin equivalents (CE)for diets
1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The best results in terms of feed intake, weight
gain, digestibility and feed conversion efficiency were found in rabbits taking
maize diets. It was found that brown sorghum is unsuitable for use in the diets
of growing rabbits.
Key Words:
maize, sorghum, tannin, digestibility, daily gain, feed conversion efficiency