Received date: 15/08/2015

Accepted date: 19/02/2016

A study was conducted at the experimental farm of Can Tho University in Vietnam. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different dietary crude protein levels on growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing Californian rabbits. Sixty Californian rabbits at 42 days of age were arranged in a complete randomized design with 5 treatments and 3 replications. Four rabbits including 2 males and 2 females were in one experimental unit. Five treatments were different protein levels of 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23%, respectively. The apparent nutrient digestibility and nitrogen retention of the rabbits was measured at 12 weeks of age for 7 days.  This experimental period was 12 weeks. The results of study showed that dry matter (DM) and metabolizable energy (ME) intakes were not significantly different (P>0.05), however crude protein (CP) intake was significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatments with the higher values for the CP21 and CP23 treatments (P<0.05). The daily weight gain were 18.0, 20.2, 22.4, 23.3 and 23.2 g/rabbit/day for the CP15, CP17, CP19, CP21 and CP23 treatments, respectively, and were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatments. The carcass weight, thigh meat and lean meat were significantly higher (P<0.05) for those animals fed with 21 and 23% CP, while the highest profit was obtained for the CP21 treatment. It could be concluded that the diet contained 21% CP should be used to feed Californian rabbits for improving growth, carcass quality and economic return.

KEYWORDS

Rodents, nitrogen, carcass quality, nutrient digestibility, income