Energy Digestibility of Cross-Breed Weanling Rabbits as Influenced by Substitution of Soybean Meal of Bauhinia purpurea L

Abstract

Bauhinia purpurea L. is one of the alternatif ration. Rabbit can be fed Bauhinia purpurea L. due to its high protein content. A major advantage of rabbit meat appears to be in its chemical composition. It is low in fat, cholesterol and salt. A particulary attractive aspect of rabbit production is that it does not have to compete with man for feed sources, nor directly with the traditional species used in the intensive animal industry. ' The energy consumption, digestible energy and energy digestibility value were measured in this experiment. The experiment was conducted in Lab. Ruminansia Kecil, Department of Animal Production Science, Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agriculture University. This experiment was carried out during August to October 2002. Twenty male cross-breed weanling rabbits with the initial avarage body weight 853 ± 117 gram were used.