Intake growth and digestion of the growing rabbit fed alfalfa hay or green whole carrot: first results

Goby, J.P.; Huck, C.; Lamothe, Laurence; Gidenne, Thierry

Intake growth and digestion of the growing rabbit fed alfalfa hay or green whole carrot: first results

2013

Goby, J.P. | Huck, C. | Lamothe, Laurence | Gidenne, Thierry

As an herbivorous animal, it is relevant to use plants or vegetable sources in rabbit rearing, and more particularly by vegetable products non concurrent of the human feeding. However most of the data on rabbit nutrition were obtained with pelleted feeds containing dehydrated and grinded raw materials. Therefore, it is necessary to implement our knowledge on rabbit nutrition and feeding with alternative feeding systems, using raw materials in dry or green form. Such feeding systems are already used in organic rabbit production, but without a clear understanding of the intake or digestive capacity of the rabbit. The carrot, as whole plant, is readily available in area producing carrots for human consumption, since over the half of the carrot production is not calibrated for canning factory and is considered as wastes. We thus aimed to measure, with the direct method, the digestibility for two fibre sources, either in a dried form (alfalfa hay) or under a green form (whole carrot discarding). We also aimed to measure the performances of the rabbit: growth, health and intake capacity.

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