ABSTRACT

Twenty four New Zealand x chinchilla weaner bucks aged 6 weeks and averaging 0.52kg in weight were randomly divided into 4 groups of 6(six) animals per group. The bucks were exposed to 4 diets as follows Ti a normal weaner ration compounded from: maize, maize offal, soya bean, blood meal, oyster shell, bone meal and vitamin premix, and T2, T3 and T4 in which 10% of maize was replaced by sundried, ensued and fermented cocoa pods, respectively. The protein (%) and energy (kcal DE) contents of the diets were 17.23, 2816.8; 16.80, 2683.6; 16.89, 2683.6; 15.79, 2683, for diets T1,T21T3and T4, respectively.T2-T4 had 10% cocoa pods. Average daily feed in take, average daily body weight gain, feed conversion ration, carcass characteristics were evaluated. Results indicated that dietary treatment did not influence (P> 0.05) average daily feed intake and average daily weight gain among experimental animals. Also feed conversion ratio was not affected by dietary regime (P>0.05). The cut parts and organ weights showed no significant difference among rabbits fed diets with the exception of the thigh and stomach weight. Thigh weight was highest with diet 4 and lowest with diet3. .There was significant difference (p<0.05) in the liver and spleen which did not follow a specific trend.