Also, the cost of feed/kg live weight gain was significantly higher (p<0.05) for the control diet (0% DPM) when compared with the other treatment diets.

Therefore, the control diet (0% DPM) was more expensive than the diets containing 15% and 20% DPM, respectively. The total feed cost/kg was significantly reduced (p<0.05) as the inclusion levels of DPM in the diets increased. The feeding of DPM to rabbits did not show significant (p>0.05) variation in both the haematological and biochemical components of the rabbits studied and they were within the normal physiological ranges for rabbits. However, there were no significant (p>0.05) dietary treatment effect on the heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidney weights when they were expressed as percentage of the live body weight of the rabbits fed the four treatment diets. Rabbits fed the control diet (0% DPM) and the diet containing 10% DPM had significantly higher (p<0.05) dressing percentage than rabbits fed diets containing 15% and 20% DPM inclusion levels. The slaughter weight and dressed weight decreased significantly (p<0.05) as the level of DPM in the experimental diets increased. There was a slight reduction in the daily weight gain of animals with the inclusion of DPM from 0% to 20%. The inclusion of DPM in rabbit diets did not significantly (p>0.05) influence the daily feed intake of the animals. The parameters studied were daily feed intake, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio, carcass yield, organ weights, haematological and biochemical components of rabbits, and cost benefit analysis of replacing maize with DPM in rabbit diets. Each treatment group was replicated three (3) times with two (2) animals per replicate. The animals were randomly divided into four (4) treatment groups consisting of six (6) animals per group. ABSTRACT Twenty four crossbred unsexed weaner rabbits of about seven (7) weeks old with mean body weight of 528.75g were used in a feeding trial involving four dietary treatments containing 0, 10, 15, and 20% inclusion levels of dried pito mash (DPM) in a completely randomized design study that lasted for seven (7) weeks.

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