CASSAVA PEELS AND LEAVES IN THE DIET OF RABBITS: EFFECT ON PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS

An experiment was conducted using 20 growing rabbits (5 – 6weeks in age) of mixed breeds and sexes with initial weight of 500 – 650g to evaluate the effect of replacing maize as a source of energy with cassava peel meal (CPM) and cassava leaf meal (CLM) in their diets. The rabbits were randomly allotted to five isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets. Each dietary treatment was replicated 4-time with individually caged rabbits. The experiment lasted 56days. Dietary treatment did not have effect (P > 0.05) on average daily weight gain, water consumption, feed intake and feed efficiency and carcass charactaristics. The utilization of CPM and CLM fortified with palm-oil sludge with or without amino acid supplementation greatly reduced the cost of producing a unit weight of rabbit (P < 0.001). It was concluded that combination of CPM and CLM can serve as a replacement for maize in rabbit diets without any adverse effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics