Performance and Nutrient Digestibility of Rabbit Fed Urea Treated Cowpea Husk

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of varying levels of urea treated and untreated cowpea husk on the performance of weaned rabbit. Sixteen (16) breed weaner rabbits of both sexes, 6-8 weeks old with an average initial weight of 833g were randomly distributed to four dietary treatments with 4 rabbits per treatment. The experiment lasted for a period of six weeks. Two diets were formulated in which cowpea husk was included at 40% (untreated control), 40, 50 and 60% urea treated cowpea husk at 4% designed as diet 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. The rabbits were weighed weekly to observe body weight changes, fresh water was supplied ad libitum and 100g of feed were offered to each rabbit daily. The results showed that daily feed intake, dry matter intake, feed conversion ratio and crude protein intake were significantly different (p<0.05), while the daily weight gain did not show much variation (p>0.05). Three mortalities were recorded during the experiment, one in treatment three and, two in treatment four. Mortality was highest in treatment four (60% inclusion level). It can be deduced from this study that supplementing rabbit diet with 4% urea used for the treatment at 40% level of inclusion is safe to the rabbit if properly and uniformly added. Further research is necessary at higher treated levels of urea to reduce the toxic effect.