An experiment was conducted in a 4 x 4 LSD trial using adult Labrador dogs (live weight 18.25 ± 0.25 kg, 380.75 ± 2.81 days of age) to find out the effect of incorporation of different levels of poultry slaughter waste (PSW) in dog diets on dry matter (OM) intake, palatability and digestibility of nutrients. The treatment diets were No PSW (CON; n = 6); 5% PSW (PSW5; n =6); 10% PSW (PSW10 =6) and 15% PSW (PSW15 =6). The test diets were prepared by extrusion cooking 10; I5; process and fed in the form of differently shaped dry extruded type dog biscuits. The experiment lasted for 60 days. OM intake, OM intake as % body weight (P<0.05) and OM intake per kg metabolic body weight were significantly higher (P<0.01) for the PSW5 group than other two PSW and CON groups. The adult dogs consumed all test diets with equal preference to the control diet indicating, palatability of the PSW based dog diet biscuits was good and extrusion cooking of the diets had positive impact on the intake of the diets, while shape of the biscuit had no effect on the palatability. Digestibility of OM, CP, CF (P<0.01) and EE were significantly (P<0.05) higher on PSW5 diet compared to CON diet, while PSW10 and PSW15 diets were intermediate, indicatingin corporation of PSW at 5% level in dog diet biscuits prepared by extrusion cooking had positive impact on digestibility of nutrients. The cost incurred on test diet PSW15 was 11% lesser when compared to CON diet. It is concluded that, inclusion of PSW in the extruded dog diets improved palatability, OM intake and nutrient utilization and PSW could be incorporated in the adult dog diets at 15% level without any adverse effect on health of the animal while being cost effective.
Digestibility, Economics, Extruded dog diet biscuits, Labrador dogs, Poultry slaughter waste
