Effect of incorporation of rice based distiller’s dried grain with soluble on growth performance and cost economics of Japanese quails

The present study was carried out to assess the effect of dietary incorporation of rice DDGS on growth performance and cost economics of Japanese quails. Day old Japanese quails (n=180) were distributed randomly into five dietary groups each with three replicates of 12 birds and were maintained under uniform management conditions. Experiment diets were prepared with incorporation of rice DDGS at 0 (T₁: control), 5(T₂), 10(T₃), 15(T₄) and 20% (T₅) levels by marginal adjustment of other feed ingredients. All the rations were made iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. Feed and water were provided adlibitum. The birds were housed in battery cages during the experiment period of 0-5 weeks. Results revealed a significant (P<0.05) increase in body weights, increase (P<0.01) in body weight gains with increased levels of rice DDGS in diets of quails. There was no significant effect of rice DDGS on feed intake but significantly (P<0.05) better FCR was noticed at 20% level of incorporation. The cumulative performance index was significantly increased (P<0.01) with increasing level of rice DDGS in quails. Similarly, cumulative protein efficiency ratio significantly increased (P<0.05) with increasing levels of rice DDGS in diet. The feed cost / kg gain was significantly lower (P<0.01) in quails fed with 20% rice DDGS as compared with other treatment groups. Basing on the present study, it can be concluded that rice DDGS can be incorporated at 20% level in diets of quails to improve FCR and decrease feed cost. Keywords: rice DDGS, production parameters, cost economics, performance index, protein efficiency ratio