Some Mangemental Studies on Rabbits

The health and growrh performance of rabbits is greatly influenced by manipulating the dietary copper contenls. The limited information available on the utilization of copper by rabbits strongly suggests thar growth rate can also be substantially promoted in this group of animals. More attention is currently being paid ro rabbit production in tropical regions to augment the low animal protein intake by humans in rhese areas. Besides getting rabbit meat to the table fast, the use of high copper feeding may reduce the cost of meat to consumers, However, more research effort is required on copper feeding to rabbits. its utilization wilh regard to various dietary components in the diet, especially protein and energy level. The toxic level of copper in rabbit is not known. There is a need ro determine the optimum level of supplemental copper in rabbit diet, as well as, the toxic levels. The presenr work was conducted to study the growth performance of rabbits as affected by feeding varying levels of dietary prorein and energy and graded level of copper,