EFFECT OF RESTRICTED FEEDING PERIODS DURING LATE PREGNANCY AND EARLY LACTATION ON THE PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCES OF THE DROMEDARY SHE –CAMEL

The present study aimed to justify the effects of restricted feeding periods during last month of pregnancy and initiation of lactation on growth rate of Maghrebi she-camel and their offsprings. Sixteen pregnant she- camels with an average body weight 512.74 kg were divided randomly into three groups. The first group (G1) was fed 100% of their daily requirements concentrates. The second group (G2) was offered 75% of their daily requirement of concentrates after delivery for one month, while the third group (G3) was fed on 75% of  their daily of concentrate requirements for two months (one month pre and another one post-partum). New born calves were divided after one month of lactation to four groups as following; calves born  G1 dams were divided randomly to two subgroups. The first one (G11) suckled their dams naturally, while the other (G12) was artificial reared on a milk mixture (50% natural camel milk and 50% cattle milk replacer). Calves born to G2 and G3 dams were artificial reared on a mixture 50% natural camel milk and 50% cattle milk replacer. Results obtained showed that she-camels of G1 gained insignificant more live body weight than that of G3 during the pre-calving period 49.09 vs. 42.05 kg, respectively. There were insignificant differences among the 3 groups in calves birth weight 30.44, 32.8 and 29.73 kg, respectively. During lactation period, she-camels of G1 produced insignificantly more daily milk in compare with the corresponding she-camels of G2 and G3 (3.78 liter vs. 3.32 and 3.4 liter/ animal), respectively. She-camel of G3 lost significantly (P˂0.05) more LBW from the beginning of the experiment to the end of the study in compare with both of G1 and G2 she-camels. Calves of one month of age and born to G1 dams indicate faster (P˂0.05) daily gain (0.326 kg / h/ day) than those to both of G2 and G3 dams. Three months old age calves of different groups, indicated nearly similar growth, regardless of their dams feed restriction and type of calves rearing (natural vs. artificial). Data obtained showed also that neither she-camels feed restriction practice nor type of calves rearing have any significant effect on either calves daily gain or dams final LBW after 3 months of treatments.