Feed intake and nutrient digestibility of weaner rabbits fed cassava peel as replacement for maize

Twenty 8-week old crosses of New Zealand White X Chinchila weaner rabbits were used to assess the performance of rabbits fed diets with cassava peel replaced with maize on a graded level. Five diets were formulated, diets 1 (control), 2, 3, 4, and 5 in which maize was replaced with cassava peel at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, respectively. The 20 rabbits were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and four animal replicates per treatment. The trial lasted for 8 weeks. Parameters measured were feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed cost per kg. It was observed that there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the average daily feed intake of the rabbits fed diets 3, 4 and 5. However, diets 3, 4 and 5 had significantly  higher (P < 0.05) intake than diets 1 and 2. Similarly, rabbits on diets 3, 4 and 5 had higher (P < 0.05) growth rates than those fed the control diet and diet 2. Feed cost per kg (N/kg) decreased from N35.33 in the control diet to N19.75 in diet 5. Cost of feed/kg live weight gain (N/day) decreased from N3.21 in the control diet to N1.29 in diet 5. It was concluded that maize supplementation in the diets of weaner rabbits could be replaced by cassava peels up to 100 % without any adverse effect. However, 75% cassava peel replacement was found to be the optimum and therefore recommended.