The effect of dietary mulberry leaves (morus sp.) And feeding frequency on growth performance in the growing rabbit (orytolagus cunniculus)

Commercial pellet has been widely used as the main feed for rabbit and covers main farm operational cost. In order to lower the feeding cost, mulberry leave was investigated in this study as the feed ingredient in the growing rabbit. This study was conducted to determine chemical composition of mulberry (morus sp.) leaves and investigate the effect of feeding frequency of mulberry (morus sp.) leaves on growth performance and digestibility of the rabbits. Twelve 4 to 5 weeks old New Zealand White rabbits were picked randomly from the population and were distributed into four treatment groups. Each group had 3 rabbits. This experiment last for a period of 84 days. There were four groups of treatment which were Control, Treatment 1, Treatment 2, and Treatment 3, which fed once per day; fed once per day with mulberry leaves; fed twice per day; and feed twice per day with mulberry leaves respectively. The rabbits were weighed on day 1 of feed trial and every seven day to observe body weight change. Mulberry leaves (10%) were given additionally to the targeted group every day and fresh water was supplied ad libitum. Rabbit droppings were collected for digestibility investigation on the last 10 days of experiment. The result showed that feeding frequency and mulberry leaves do not have significant difference on the rabbit growth performance and digestibility. But it shows significant difference to the rabbit feed conversion ratio (FCR). Rabbit fed twice per day without mulberry leaves give the best FCR index which is 6.45+0.4 compared to 8.32+0.4, 8.05+0.4 and 8.26+0.4 in Control, Treatment 1 and Treatment 3 respectively. Feed frequently gone through digestive tract increase nutrients absorption and improve body weight gain. Mulberry leaves have the higher CF and CP percentage compared to the commercial pellet which is suitable to replace commercial pellet in daily diet. Further research is necessary at higher feeding frequency and higher mulberry leaves amount.