Growth Performance of Rabbits Fed with Beggarticks (Bidens pilosa), BlackNightshade (Solanum nigrum) and Palmer’s Pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri)

Abstract

The study on growth performance of rabbit fed with beggar-ticks (Bidens pilosa), black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) and Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri) was conducted at Bakun, Benguet on March 22 to May 20, 2015. Specifically, the study was conducted to determine the feed intake, final weight, gain in weight, feed conversion ratio, and feed cost to produce a kilogram gain in weight of rabbits fed with beggarticks (Bidens pilosa), black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), and Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri). Following the completely randomized design, 12 heads of 60 days old rabbits were distributed to three treatments. The treatments were: T1 - beggarticks (Bidens pilosa), T2 - black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), T3 - Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri) and 35g of commercial feed per day was distributed respectively. Each treatment was replicated 4 times. The rabbits were fed of the different rations for a period of 60 days. Result revealed that there were no significant differences between treatment means in the initial weight, final weight, total weight gain, and feed conversion ratio, as fed and dry matter basis of rabbits. The average initial weight, final weight, total gain in weight, feed conversion ratio, as fed, and feed conversion ratio, as dry matter basis across the treatments were 0.55 kg, 1.26 kg, 0.71 kg, 52.94, and 8.65 respectively. Differences were observed in the feed intake both fed and dry matter basis. In terms of feed intake, as fed, Rabbits fed with Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri) had the highest feed intake of 45.25 kg while rabbits fed with black nightshade came next with the feed intake of 34.83 kg and rabbits fed with beggarticks (Bidens pilosa) had the lowest feed intake of 24.32 kg for 60 days. In terms of dry matter basis, rabbits fed with Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri) had the highest feed intake of 6.99 kg. This was followed by rabbits fed with black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) and beggarticks (Bidens pilosa) with feed intakes of 5.84 kg and 5.36 kg respectively. For the feed cost to produce a kilogram gain in weight, rabbits fed with beggarticks (Bidens pilosa) had the cheapest cost of PhP 770.19. This was followed by rabbits fed with black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) and Palmer’s pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri) with higher costs of PhP 890.76 and PhP 1,039.51 respectively. Based on the results of the study, it is therefore concluded that rabbits performed the same in terms of final weight, total gain in weight, and feed conversion ratio regardless of dietary treatments except for feed cost to produce a kilogram in weight. It is therefore suggested that beggarticks (Bidens pilosa) can be used as feed resource for 60 days old rabbits to attain lower feed cost to produce a kilogram in weight.