Performance of growing Japanes quails fed on iso-caloric diets of different crude protein levels

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding Japanese quails {Coturnix coturnix Japqnicg). on iso-caloric diets varying in dietary protein level on the growth performance from 1 to 35 days of age. One hundred and twenty Japanese quails (1-day-old) were used in this experiment following a Completely Randomised Design. The quails were fed with similar level of metabolizable energy (ME) and four levels (Dl, D2, D3 and D4) of crude protein (CP), containing 20.10, 21.82, 23.73 and 26.18. respectively. The quails were randomly divided into 12 sub groups of 10 chicks each and there were 3 replicates under each of the four dietary treatments. All the diets were formulated using soya bean meal and maize meal as the main sources of crude protein and energy, respectively. The parameters mortality rate, average body weight (ABW), average feed intake (API), and average weight gain (AWG) and feed conversion ratios (FCR) were determined. Differences were significant for ABW; birds fed the Dl diet had the lowest ABW while those fed D3 had the highest. Quails on Dl and D4 had significantly less ABW (P < 0.05) compared to those on D2 and D3. Results between Dl and D4 showed insignificant differences (P < 0.05). This was the case for quails fed on D2 and D3. During the grower phase, significant differences were observed for AFI; D3 and D4 had significantly higher intakes than D2 and Dl, and D2 was significantly higher than Dl. The differences were not significant between D3 and D4. Dl had the lowest while D3 had the highest AFI. Crude protein had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on AWG; quails fed on Dl recording the lowest value while those fed on D2 had the highest AWG. However, only quails fed on Dl showed significantly lower gains than the rest. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were found for FCR; quails fed on D2 had a significantly lower FCR compared to other dietary treatments. Therefore the Japanese quails obtained the best performance when fed D2, 21.82% crude protein.