Tricia Kaye Z. Espiritu-Rama, Mae Ann S. Tongol
Corresponding email: [email protected]
A B S T R A C T
The price of conventional sources of energy such as corn and wheat is high due to insufficient supply and tough competition between humans and animals. This study was done to determine the digestibility of various carbohydrate sources in the diet of native chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) with regard to dry matter content, apparent metabolizable energy and crude protein. The study result would help poultry raisers to determine alternative, inexpensive energy sources of feed that are available in the local community. There were six dietary treatments used in this study namely: t0-commercial feeds (CF), t1-peeled cassava (PC), t2- peeled sweetpotato (PSP), t3- unpeeled cassava (UC), t4-unpeeled sweetpotato (USP) and t5-grated coconut (GC). The treatments were arranged in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with four replicates. Native chickens undergone a 10-day digestibility trial. During the digestibility trial, homogenous feces from test diets were collected, weighed and dried as well as the endogenous feces which were collected after no feeding period. Feed sample and collected feces from each treatment were subjected to chemical analysis. The result of this study revealed that PC got the highest percent dry matter digestibility followed by GC. On the other hand, CF statistically got the lowest %dry matter digestibility (DMD) among other treatments. In terms of crude protein digestibility (CPD), PC diet obtained the highest crude protein digestibility while GC obtained the lowest percentage. When it comes to Apparent Metabolizable Energy (AME), native chicken fed with GC diets attained the highest digestibility which is significantly higher than commercial feeds and other diets. The results on the digestibility percentage of dry matter, crude protein and apparent metabolizable energy is determined through the One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Peeled cassava and grated coconut can be used as energy source of feed for native chicken.