THE EFFECT OF RESTRICTED FEEDING FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME ON THE CARCASS’S FATTENING PARAMETERS OF RABBITS

Abstract

The effect of restricted feeding through a longer time period on the performance parameters and carcasses’ qualitative traits of the fattening rabbits was studied. 42 rabbits of six weeks old were grouped into three identical groups. The rabbits under the control group were fed ad libitum, while the ones under the two other groups (experimental groups) were fed through some feeding time restrictions, as the following: (7 hours/day) during the two and three first weeks of fattening respectively. Afterwards, up to the age of 18 weeks, all of them were fed ad libitum again. At the end of the trial, it was concluded that both the body weight and daily gain were statistically not influenced by the time duration of the restricted feeding. Although the second group of experiment showed a substantial daily feed intake (p ≤ 0.01), non significant effects on the feed conversion rate was demonstrated. Feed restriction time for two and three weeks didn’t show the same effect on the carcasses’ parameters. Parallel with the slaughtering age increase, the live weight, the carcass weight, the meat yield and abdominal fat were all increased (p ≤ 0.01), but the percentage of the internal organs vs. the total carcass weight was lower.