Effect of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas lam.) Peel meal as replacement for maize on growth performance and cost of feeding weaner rabbits

The experiment was carried out to determine the effect of replacement of maize with sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas lam.) on growth performance and cost of feeding weaner rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). A total number of thirty-six (36) weaned rabbit of mixed sexes were used for the experiment. The rabbits were allotted randomly into four dietary treatments and replicated thrice with three rabbits per replicate and were designated: control (T1): normal compounded diet without sweet potato peel meal, T2 had the compounded feed which 5% sweet potato peel meal, T3 had compounded diet with 10% sweet potato peel meal and treatment four (T4 ) had the compounded diet with 15% sweet potato peel meal. The experiment lasted eight weeks and data were obtained on growth performance and cost benefit. The parameters considered on growth performance include initial weight, final weight, total body weight gain, daily weight gain, weekly weight gain, daily feed intake, total feed intake and feed conversion ratio while that of cost benefit include cost of purchasing different experimental feed stuff. The results obtained on growth performance showed that there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in the parameters monitored. Cost of feeding was also not significantly different (p>0.05). However, higher profit index (174. 64) was recorded in T1 and lower benefit cost ratio (166.68) was recorded in T4 for total cost of feed intake per rabbit. In conclusion, sweet potato peel meal can be uses as a good replacement for maize in rabbit production without any adverse effect on the performance of rabbit