NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY ON WEST AFRICAN DWARF BUCKS FED MANGO AND GMELINA LEAVES IN FICUS BASED DIETS

A research was conducted in a completely randomized design to evaluate nutrient digestibility of west African dwarf bucks fed mango leaves and Gmelina leaves in ficus based diets. Twelve (12) west African dwarf bucks with average weight of 10kg were used for the experiment for a duration of 42-days.. The animals were randomly allocated to three experimental diets; T1, control (100% ficus), T2 (60% ficus+40% mango leaves) and T3(60% ficus+40% Gmelina leaves).The result revealed that the values of dry matter, organic matter and crude fibre were not significantly (P>0.05) among the treatments means. While parameters like digestible ether extract, ash, crude protein, nitrogen free extract were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. Hence it was recommended that replacing ficus at the rate of 40% with 60% Gmelina arborea in a diet can be used in goat feeding for optimum production.

Key Words: Ruminant, Ficus, Mango, Gmelina, Crude Fibre, Crude Protein, Ash, Ether Extract.