AN ASSESSMENT OF POULTRY FEEDS AND FEEDING REGIMES, THEIR EFFECTS ON GROWTH PERFOMANCE OF BROILERS IN URBAN AND PERI URBAN AREAS OF HARARE.

iii A study was done on the feed types and feeding systems used by urban small holder poultry farmers in Harare. Adoption of commercial feeds was also assessed. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data including the demographic data of the farmers, chicken production related data, feeding systems related, feed production sources data and the flock healthy related data. During interviews, feed samples were also collected and were tested for CP and CF using both dry and wet chemistry methods. Effects of variations on CP and CF for feeds from different production sources on weight at day 42 were assessed using linear regression model using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. There was a significant difference on the weights obtained at day 42 between farmers using home-made and commercial diets (p<0.05) on Cobb 500, Hubbard and Ross chicks. Results from tests done showed that commercial feeds had higher CP values and lower CF values compared to home-made irrespective of the analysis method used. It was concluded that ingredients used in home-mad