Intake and Digestibility of West African Dwarf Bucks Fed Cassava Leaf-Maize Offal Based Diets

Four bucks of the West African Dwarf (WAD) breed weighing between 8-10 kg and aged 6-8 months were housed separately in metabolism crates and fed cassava leaf-maize offal based diets. The diets, A, B, C and D containing 0, 10, 20 and 30% cassava leaf meal, respectively were formulated with Crude Protein (CP%) and gross energy (MS kg(-1) DM) compositions of 6.91, 1.80, 9.10, 1.65, 10.0, 1.70 and 10.85, 1.75. The diets were consecutively fed to each animal in 4 phases of 28 days each in a 4x4 latin square arrangement. Parameters taken were weekly body weights and daily feed intake for each animal. Dry Matter Intake (DIVE), nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance status of each animal was also computed. Results showed that there were significant (p<0.05) variations in DIVE of animals fed different dietary treatments. The values were 456.43, 343.44, 373.26 and 357.35 g day(-)1 for diets A, B, C and D, respectively. Nitrogen intake (g day-1), faecal nitrogen and retained nitrogen (g day(-1)) also differed significantly (p<0.05) among diets, the corresponding values were 5.05, 1.51, 1.86 (A); 5.0, 2.36, 0.19 (B); 6.05, 2.71, 0.89 (c) and 6.20, 3.35, 0.10 (D) for the respective diets. Nitrogen in urine (g day(-1)) was similar (p>0.05) for all treatments and so also were N-absorbed (%) and apparent-N digestibility (%). Nutrient digestibility coefficients (%) for dry matter, ether extract Crude Protein (CP), Crude Fibre (CF), Nitrogen Free Extract (NFE), ash and Gross Energy (GE) were not also influenced (p>0.05) by diets. All diets however, promoted positive nitrogen balance in the experimental animals.