Performance characteristics of weaned rabbit fed plantain peel as replacement for maize

In the livestock industry in Nigeria, maize is a major source of energy and it is expensive because of competition between man and animal. Dry plantain peel of minimal cost was used to replace the maize fraction of the diet of rabbit in order to reduce cost. The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance characteristics of rabbit fed plantain peel.

The feeding trial had five treatments, T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅ in which the maize fraction in the diet was replaced at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent, respectively. Completely randomized designs were used and each treatment was replicated thrice with three rabbits per replicate. The parameters taken were feed intake and weight gain on a daily and weekly basis. Feed conversion ratio, total feed cost and cost per weight gain were calculated.

The results show that there was no significant difference in the weight gain between the control diet (T₁) and T₃ (p < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio was relatively similar in T₁ and T₄. The cost per weight gain reduced from N53.57 in the control diet to N33.39 in T₃ (75 per cent replacement).

In the livestock industry, maize is expensive because it serves as food for both man and animal. The results indicate that the feed cost of rabbit could be reduced by replacing the maize fraction of the diet with 75 per cent dry plantain peel.