Abstract

Aim: Main purpose of the study was to assess the effect of feather meal (FEM) for fish meal (FM) on the performance of mikado pheasant chicks.

Method and materials:  Total 250 starter mikado pheasant chicks (Syrmaticus mikado) were used in a 56 days feeding trial in a completely randomized design in a deep litter house. Five replacement levels of the formulated feed: 0%, 2.5%, 5% 7.5% and 10% of FEM were used for treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively with 0% FEM as control. Treatments were replicated thrice.

The deep litter house was provided with standard brooding facilities. Measurement of initial weights and final weights of birds were taken with a sensitive weighing balance (Mettler Toledo B 90001 – S brand) while mean daily weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and feed cost per kg gain were calculated.

Results: Results showed that final live weights 740.11g, 690.11g, 648.12g, 650.13g and 645.20g for birds fed 0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 10% FEM respectively varied significantly (P<0.05). Also significant differences (P<0.05) were observed in daily feed intake, feed conversion ratio and feed cost/kg weights gain.

Conclusion: In conclusion, use of feather meal to replace fish meal was achieved without any deleterious effect on the chicks. Considering the results on final weight and weight gain, it appears that the optimum replacement value of FEM for FM is 7.5% level.

Statistics